NOTATIO

I also recall my first impression of Finale when I had a glimpse of what a colleague of mine was working with. I thought "this is just SO primitive". Much later I understood he must have been in Scroll View.

The first time I worked with Finale was in the middle of the 90's, on a Mac Classic (?), the small cube with computer and screen all in one. I recall when making a change to the music, even the smallest one like dotting a note, the screen had to redraw itself - and it took about 10 seconds each time...

Thanks a lot, Callasmaniac, for the extensive info! I didn't know about the Darmstadt connection, but that certainly gives some weight to it.

I'm waiting for a possible comment from Norway, where I saw the x-dot for the first time. Maybe that will add something to the picture.

Personally I prefer the x to the + because it can straddle a staff line without becoming illegible (the + can't).

Interesting. What I miss is not so much adding a third of the value, but an eighth of it, making it possible to have one note with the duration of 9/16, 9/8 etc.
I wouldn't like to propose a new sign though - I'll let others find or invent that.

I'll come back to you when I've checked this out. Glad that you liked it.

I'm not an organist myself, but could it be that organ players are more accustomed to redistribute notes between the hands than pianists? In your first example it seems obvious that the left hand should take some notes around bar 7. In the second the left hand would likely take some notes around bar...

I think we had a discussion about notational innovations before, concluding that if they are not widely accepted they are not to be taken too seriously. Or at least not as any kind of rules. Now, I happen to think that this innovation (the "x dot") is both ingenious and useful, and can onl...

In my opinion the second example definitely is the better one. It's more standard notation, I would think, and also easier to read because it's simpler.

Possibly the syncopes may be spelled out with ties for young children, but then this doesn't look like children's music.

I think that I would only use a double-dotted half note to fill up a 7/8 measure if the the piece were in an unsubdivided 7 beats per measure since there subdividing into 4 + 3 etc. would give a misleading impression. While the double-dotted note may be useful for the reason mentioned by John, it o...