On 5/31/2009 9:39 PM, John Howell wrote:
Hi, Aaron. Not meaning to be picky, but you're breaking a single integrated action up into two distinct actions (which is what Finale, Sibelius, and Mosaic all do). When I move my hand I already know both the pitch and the duration I'm going to write, so it's a single "mental" action, and that single action encompasses note placement, note shape, and note color. The computer only knows one thing at a time.
I think your choice of words is clouding your argument here. I agree that the mental decision to write a certain note generally encompasses both the pitch and the duration, but the act of writing that note consists of two steps -- moving your pen to the correct staff level and then drawing the appropriate duration. You use the word "action" for both the mental and physical parts of this, and then you seem to imply that because the former is indivisible, the latter must be also. But this is not true.
Compare, for example, hand copying of music with old style engraving with punches. It is clear that the two methods require a different order to the component actions. In hand copying, you move to the correct pitch and then draw a duration. With punches, you have to pick up the punch of the correct duration before you can place the note on the staff. In both cases, the engraver knows beforehand both pitch and duration, and yet the order is clearly important.
Aaron. _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
