Graeme Gerrard wrote:
This raises an important issue in the development of notation. If a program such as Finale can only do a subset of things or things only in a defined way, that helps to determine what becomes canonic. Innovations that composers might have initiated are restrained by an industry model that is about chasing the past. Quite a lot of the discussion here is about doing things conventionally.
True, but as far as I'm concerned, my desire to do most of my engraving in a conventional way has less to do with how easy it is to do it in Finale or Sibelius but rather has much much more to do with the conventional knowledge of the musicians who will be reading and performing the music.
It's all well and good for a composer to feel that some new notational device is necessary for correct communication of what he/she wants the music to sound like, but if nobody among the performers understands it, will the music ever be performed correctly? Of course, people pushing the boundaries of notational conventions have gotten us to the point we are at today, but these weren't single new inventions but rather a new idea which caught on with other composers/engravers/copiests and which became widely known in a fairly short period of time so that they truly became new conventions.
As for software which is chasing the past, that's because that's what the developers have as a guide -- if one wants notation of the future, with far more graphic representations than the traditional staves and notes/rests, etc., there are always graphics programs which will allow one to do anything except for listen to playback.
I realize that the ideal will happen when a program such as Finale or Sibelius finally incorporates a drawing module so that we can combine traditional notation with anything else we want to put on the page.
But to get back to the main point -- convention just to conform to what software will allow is ridiculous, but convention to conform to what the performers understand is a bit more pragmatic and realistic, in my opinion.
I am all in favor of lobbying MakeMusic and Sibelius to incorporate drawing modules so that we are not simply bound by the traditional notation of the past 300 years, as long as they don't abandon the past to satisfy those who have their own personal views of the future.
-- David H. Bailey dhbai...@davidbaileymusicstudio.com _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
