On 19 Mar 2010 at 16:07, Andrew Stiller wrote: > On Mar 18, 2010, at 5:37 PM, David W. Fenton wrote: > > Harpsichordists can actually do a lot with length, > > whereas music boxes cannot, so I'd think that would exacerbate the > > problem. > > I don't know where you got that idea. Pinned barrels, punched paper > rolls and the like are capable of tremendous rhythmic sophistication > and detail. Consider Conlon Nancarrow.
Piano rolls are a completely different technology, in that they encode the exact length of the notes. Pins on music boxes do not, since there are no dampers to stop the vibrations once they are started -- all music boxes encode is the start of the note, which then decays into silence. Harpsichordists, on the other hand, have dampers to control the termination of the note, which is one of the crucial tools they have for giving the illusion of different weights within a line. But it does take a high level of technique to do this with any subtlety. Your garden-variety ham-handed pianist isn't going to be able to make it happen at all. -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
