At 07:43 PM 12/10/2003 +0000, Stewart McCoy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Matanya Ophee has argued that reading from tablature is like playing >by rote. I wouldn't quite put it that way, because playing from >staff notation can be much the same, if you are on auto-pilot. What >I think he means (please correct me if I'm wrong, Matanya) is that >it is easier to see and understand musical things like harmony and >counterpoint when reading from staff notation. I would agree with >that, but I would also say that it is often easier to see technical >things like chord shapes and finger patterns when reading from >tablature. Both systems have their strengths. As you may have gathered from my exchanges with Howard, I am not all that interested in arguing in favor of one system or the other, if the question is for accomplished players who are familiar with their preferred system of notation. My only interest in this issue is if the insistence on tablature is doing the lute any good by scaring away the non-lutenists. In a previous message, you argued that pitch notation requires two actions to cause the player to execute the movements required to produce the sound, i.e., recognition of the pitch and then translating that pitch to the topography of the fingerboard. Tablature, you said, removes one of these actions and goes directly to the fingerboard. If this is true, then it follows that the only time the lutenist gets to hear the pitch, is _after_ the action has been taken when it is too late to do anything about it. But this can not be entirely true, if, at the same time, you recognize that it is possible to hear the pitch directly from the ciphers. In other words, as far as pitch is concerned, both systems are pretty much the same. Where the difference is in the rhythm, and in the harmonic sense, in the ability to indicate dynamics, accents, timbre and other elements of musical interpretation that are not available in tablature. See for example this: http://www.orphee.com/SOLOS/rubeninc.gif Of course Thomas Schall is correct that some guitarists prefer full fingering and use them as pseudo-tablature. But this is a phenomenon that belongs in the early stages of education. Professional guitarists for the most part, can read the music without any fingering. And of course, even pitch notation is not a precisely scientific way of depicting the actual sound. There is quite a bit that is taken on faith by the player and much of the precise durations of the inner voices cannot be notated correctly. But as in the case of the First Etude by Villa-Lobos (see this discussion of it for details: http://www.orphee.com/yantee.htm) the published pitch notation is pretty much a perfect pseudo-tablature, even without the fingering. Experienced player would be able to negotiate all the chord changes on sight, and beginners will have to hunt and peck one note at a time. Matanya Ophee Editions Orphe'e, Inc., 1240 Clubview Blvd. N. Columbus, OH 43235-1226 Phone: 614-846-9517 Fax: 614-846-9794 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.orphee.com
