>Any composer working in the United States writing for orchestra >needs to be absolutely, acutely aware of what types of notation are >most easily read at sight, because you're never going to get >everyone to check out the parts in advance.
this is of course a much larger problem: are you (the generic "you") encouraging people to write for orchestral musicians who are stunted or who are part of an orchestra which simply doesn't have the means (economic or other) to perform new pieces properly (and perhaps shouldn't both trying... another discussion)? then those guidelines could be useful. if you are interested in a 2nd performance or a performance outside the walls of america, then you would do well to ignore the more banal aspects of them. it is indeed a catch-22. it could be that by following the "rules" you are actually hindering the composition's real essence, so it might not be as interesting to some who might otherwise be interested in getting it performed... >(If even 25% of the players do, it's a minor miracle!) And of >course, you're also never also going to get anything even remotely >resembling adequate rehearsal time. a chronic problem, of course. >So if the same idea can be easily communicated using traditional >notation -- in this case, metrical beaming plus accents an accented note is not the same at all as a note starting a phrase, except when played by the most vulgar of musicians. >The problem is that the beaming needs to correspond to the >conductor's beat pattern in predictable and repeatable ways. The >more complex and/or syncopated and/or multi-layered the rhythms, the >more important this becomes. i don't think there is a set of hard rules that can lay this out in clear terms and be relevant. it could be useful to state the kinds of things you mention as the guidelines: think about this and that and these issues and weigh them out carefully before you commit the notation to print. _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
