Braces

Discuss the rules of notation, standard notation practices, efficient notation practices and graphic design.
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Fred G. Unn
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Re: Braces

Post by Fred G. Unn »

John Ruggero wrote:Yours is definitely a winner. Please send me your settings, as well!
Thanks, PM sent!
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OCTO
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Re: Braces

Post by OCTO »

What excels Fred's brace is the perfect harmony with clefs in the BW-domain. Now I am even more convinced about color harmony between braces and clefs.
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Finale 27.3 • Sibelius 2023.5• MuseScore 4+ • Logic Pro X+ • Ableton Live 11+ • Digital Performer 10+ /// MacOS Monterey (secondary in use systems: Fedora 35, Windows 10)
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Fred G. Unn
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Re: Braces

Post by Fred G. Unn »

Thanks OCTO! If anyone is interested, here are the other braces in that comparison jpeg:

1) Bach inventions re-published by Alfred, no idea who the original publisher/engraver was
2) Boosey house style guide
3) Finale default
4) Gould
5) Henle
6) Ted Ross
7) Schirmer from 1945
8) Schirmer house style guide (2009)
9) Schott
10) SCORE
11) Sibelius default
12) Kurt Stone
13) Finale brace I made a while back trying to emulate SCORE

(Also, John if you see this, check your PMs. I can see because it's still sitting in my Outbox that you never got my PM with the settings.)
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wess-music
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Re: Braces

Post by wess-music »

This is very interesting treat.
Many years ago I was looking for some possibility to alter the grotty Finale piano brace. One of my favourites are Peters and Henle.
So, after many attempts I found this as a my style and till today it is the default for any grand-staff project.
Screen Shot 2015-10-29 at 17.19.48.png
Screen Shot 2015-10-29 at 17.19.48.png (3.95 KiB) Viewed 9520 times
The worst one is from "Sibelius" (11), but ! – what I found positive in this program is that the braces are not combination of curves but just pure glyph form font "Opus special" slot 123 & 125 that later on are stretched vertically.
BTW, if one need brace for 1 staff there are almost no solutions. There is no need to answer – "why we need to apply brace on single staff?" – well, time to time, there is no enough space, and if the piano or mostly synthesisers are sporadically or continuously playing with one hand only – then why not...
It is not a serious answer, but is not the accent of my reply.

In such situation, the "ugliest" one comes the first choice! What I mean. As I mentioned, "Sibelius"/Avid supplies their customers with tons of different symbols form Opus or other fonts. Finale ... does not.

The { or } are easy to catch and place.
Screen Shot 2015-10-29 at 17.50.56.png
Screen Shot 2015-10-29 at 17.50.56.png (8.87 KiB) Viewed 9520 times
If you try with the default Finale brace ... comes world sorrow.
Screen Shot 2015-10-29 at 18.05.09.png
Screen Shot 2015-10-29 at 18.05.09.png (11.74 KiB) Viewed 9520 times
Last edited by wess-music on 29 Oct 2015, 16:15, edited 1 time in total.
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wess-music
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Re: Braces

Post by wess-music »

BTW, Nº 9 is also SCORE.
Schott, in their digitally engraved scores, use this one as well as versatile set of symbols specially designed for them (for Score 3. and 4. versions)
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Fred G. Unn
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Re: Braces

Post by Fred G. Unn »

wess-music wrote:BTW, Nº 9 is also SCORE.
Schott, in their digitally engraved scores, use this one as well as versatile set of symbols specially designed for them (for Score 3. and 4. versions)
Ah, good to know, thanks!
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John Ruggero
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Re: Braces

Post by John Ruggero »

Wess, your brace is very nice. I do prefer the brace a little closer to the staves. This varies from publisher to publisher. What is your opinion?

I made a small one from Opus Special 24 pt. Is that how you made yours?

I do think that we could be unfair to some of these braces in that the degree of stretching for different size systems can have a strong impact on the impression, as you just showed with your stretching above!
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wess-music
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Re: Braces

Post by wess-music »

"the degree of stretching for different size systems can have a strong impact on the impression"

I can't agree more, it really depends on the impression we perceive in combination with the staff hight.
With a single staff IMO it works, however for grand-staff ... so-so.
In other words – must be avoided!
For this example I used 28 p.
_______

"I do prefer the brace a little closer to the staves. This varies from publisher to publisher. What is your opinion?"
Could be. But in conjunction with orchestral type of "bracket" this distance work best for me. No doubt – it is personal point of view.

Best regards,
Wess
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Schneider
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Re: Braces

Post by Schneider »

Sometimes i use what I call a 'strait brace' but I'm not sure whether it's the right English word (maybe curly bracket ?) to gather a group of instruments:
strait-brace.png
strait-brace.png (60 KiB) Viewed 9513 times
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wess-music
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Re: Braces

Post by wess-music »

Looks very convincing and your Piano brace too!
Schneider, cloud you please give some more info about the tempo font.
(Century Book?)
Thank you.
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