>Fair enough! But the guidelines given were >guidelines for students. In my experience, it's >often good for students to give them certain >prescriptive rules the bright ones can rail >against or find ways to subvert.
i don't think notation should be about subversion, except in projects that really have some ideological / socio-philosophical theme. i suppose i would want the students to have something like this to read: -- notation should not be understood as a set of rules and regulations that are to be followed slavishly. however... a higher understanding of notation one of many complex components of the communications system between the composer's idea and the listener's appreciation means that there is no need for the perversion, or subversion of notation standards. contemporary notation is an outgrowth of -- and sometimes partly also a necessary revision or update of -- a long tradition of notation. this tradition is certainly limited in scope but, as the saying goes, there is no need to reinvent the wheel, just because your music does not sound like anything composed pre-1909. much of the tradition of notating music for western instruments is still very usable (or even unchanged) even in the most experimental settings, where composers often actually draw on traditional playing techniques, perhaps somewhat extended; in such cases, the notation should also reflect this. most of what a composer today will ask of a musician will have ³been done already², at least from a notational point of view. it is essential to seek out references or examples and understand these newer ³traditions² -- and, it goes without saying, to master the gamut of more long-standing notational traditions -- as part of a wider set of not-entirely-immutable standards of notation that should be used as long as it really is possible. in cases where these notation standards really can't represent this or that music (and i assure you that more of it can than one might think), then any expansion of the system should be coherent with and built on existing standards. and before ³reinventing the wheel², talk to performers and other composers to see what their experiences have been, or thoughts on the matter might be. by researching, analysing and reflecting on the real need for new notation practices instead of capriciously inventing ³new² notations, you are doing yourself and your musician colleagues a great service. _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
