NOTATIO

An interesting case of unusual stem direction occurs in the autograph of the middle section of Chopin's Etude op 10 no. 3. Chopin makes two of the beamed pairs stand out from the others by suddenly changing stem direction in both hands and adding a staccato wedge over the second note. I have starred...

Hi, odod. Sorry, I didn't understand your comment. Do you mean that the tip of one of the slurs is kissing a staff line? If so, I think you are right that it is nicer if a slur passes through a staff line at least a little. But I do see slur tips just touching staff lines in several good editions I ...

Here is an example of the kind of cautionary accidental that is purely the result of an editor following a dogmatic rule rather than using musical instinct. It makes things less rather than more clear. Would anyone have any doubt that it is an A natural in the LH at the beginning of the second measu...

In working in detail with the manuscripts of several fine composers, I have been continually struck by the notational economy shown. It's almost as if they are following a code of ethics that requires the simplest possible notation: Here is an example from Chopin's Etude op. 10 not. 8. The autograph...

each program's defaults represent a set of decisions made by that program's designers as to the best that program can offer. Why would the designers do anything else? If only this were true, at least, in the case of Finale. There have been numerous threads on this site that have discussed the short...

Brahms once confessed to a young composer (I think it was Schenker) that he was ashamed of his early piano music when he compared it to that of Beethoven who knew exactly how to create the maximum effect with the simplest means, which in turn is why Beethoven admired Handel.

Because we live in a foolish, fadish age? But don't get me started...

I think it would be interesting to see a version with the shipping defaults and minimal manual tweaking, and then a top shelf version by the same program and engraver using whatever settings they feel appropriate. Yes, this would be a very interesting document that would point out the deficiencies ...

In my version (Finale 2014.5), the Finale default font is Maestro, not Engraver.

For me, the document would be more useful if one saw each program in its Sunday best.

Thanks, John. For me, the usefulness of this document is limited by the fact that the output is so dependent on the engraver's settings and style and the font used. For example, the Finale example would look completely different were it engraved in Maestro rather than Engraver. One wonders what the ...