NOTATIO

I find it fascinating to see how closely notation can parallel a composer’s thought process. At the very beginning of the opening theme of Chopin’s Etude op. 25 no. 7, Chopin’s always-faithful copyist writes: Chopin Etude op 25 no 7 MS Copy.jpeg This was engraved exactly as it stands by the first Fr...

Welcome to the forum, AsstGen2018. I think you are doing a fine job, but do agree with benwiggy about the spacing unless there are other considerations that we are unaware of. Suggestions: 1. It would be best practice to provide cautionary F naturals in m. 10. 2. The last bar on page two should end ...

Thanks very much DatOrganistTho and welcome back!

I'd love to help, OCTO., but the situation is not clear to me. Some sort of example might be helpful. You mentioned repetition numbers. Are these lines A, B etc. each made up of short phrases repeated many times? The kind that would be enclosed in repeat marks followed by a long thick line to show t...

Judging from the many corrections in the MS in the soprano solo section, some pasted on, it appears that the section was highly modified later. This might have distracted Bruckner and caused the errors.

This part would not have met Arnstein's cueing standards. Note the penciled division of the rests and verbal cues on the first line that had to be written in by the player. Then there is the 63 measure rest without a cue. This was typical of the under-cued parts from other copying offices that we so...

Along the same lines, Beethoven et al. including Brahms used the following pattern instead of octaves alternating between the hands in 16ths alla Liszt. The effect is more mellow and non-percussive, although more difficult to play:

Interesting and apropos example. Cross-staff beaming for alternating hands on the piano is seen mostly (only?) after the Classic period with composers like Liszt, who used it for percussive effects. Brahms used the older notation, since he didn't use such effects. Great observation about the beaming...

You are very welcome, OCTO. Regarding the comments by Schonbergian and David Ward: E. Gould has an extensive section on the division of words set to music on pages 441-446. There are apparently different schools of thought on the subject. For what it is worth, I believe that A. Arnstein used the app...

To supply the advice from a keyboard player requested by OCTO: if the composer intended legato notes alternating between the hands, he has notated the passage correctly. Showing this as cross-staffed 16ths would give a non-legato impression. This is a good opportunity to mention that there are two s...