Placement of tuplets

[John Ruggero]

Here is an example of how music customs do not always improve. The first example is from the first movement of the first edition of Beethoven's Sonata op. 31 no. 1. One sees he dramatic peaks and valleys of the music as if it were mountain range:

Beethoven op 31 no 1 Naegeli .png (1.58 MiB) Viewed 259 times

This wonderful picture was destroyed already in the 19th century in the Breitkopf Complete Works. A new custom of dividing the hands between the two staves had come into fashion. It was "easier" for people who, for some reason, couldn't read right hand notes on the lower staff. And it allowed rules regarding stem direction to be observed more rigidly. So the musical picture has been flattened. Where are the mountains and valleys? Was this new custom progress?

Beethoven op 31 no 1 B&H .png (729.05 KiB) Viewed 259 times

[Shinohara Hoshi]

Sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse.

You're right, John. The current music notation software often does not support some traditional engraving methods, and can only be manually adjusted. For example, in the Brahms score you sent, the whole notes placed in the center of measure, etc. (because it has nothing to do with the topic, I will not talk about it for the time being)

Please forgive me for using inappropriate words before. In fact, I agree with you that it is good not to use brackets in Brahms's case, clear enough. However, modern music scores benefit from excellent printing technology, and even home printers can easily print unified and clear character. In large or complex scores, brackets can play a good role in prompts.
(Off-topic: There is actually knowledge about the Brackets range and inclination of tuplets, so I never worry that they look messy and ugly. )

Doing away with the tuplet slur and placing the triplet on the stem seems to have happened somewhere toward the end of the 19th century. It would be interesting to do research to find out more precisely when that was.

I also have some impression of that kind of music, but I don't know much about it. However, early Japanese music scores seem to have always used tuplets with brackets. (and they did not use the "engraving" process before the computer, but the "stamp" process.)

This wonderful picture was destroyed already in the 19th century in the Breitkopf Complete Works. A new custom of dividing the hands between the two staves had come into fashion. It was "easier" for people who, for some reason, couldn't read right hand notes on the lower staff. And it allowed rules regarding stem direction to be observed more rigidly. So the musical picture has been flattened. Where are the mountains and valleys? Was this new custom progress?

The method in the first edition is still very common, so to a certain extent, I think it is a problem of the style of the publishing house...
On the contrary, I want to give a positive example. In the Bach BWV 847 published by Henle, they broke the "rules" and chose a direction that is more in line with the flow of notes, which is undoubtedly as easier to read as the first edition of Beethoven's sonata.

BWV 847 Henle.jpeg (513.04 KiB) Viewed 253 times

That's what I said at the beginning. If necessary, any rules should be broken, as long as there is a good reason.

In addition, I found that Henle's version retains this mountain very well.

Op. 31 No.1 Henle.jpeg (547.73 KiB) Viewed 253 times

[John Ruggero]

Yes, the single-note in the measure issue. Thanks for bringing that one up. Then there is the bad position of the stem-side two-note slur. If I had a dollar for each one of those...

I agree completely that tuplet brackets are necessary in complex contemporary music. However, I also think that they are over-used by those who are writing less rhythmically complex music. I would go so far as to say that music up to a Brahms level of complexity rarely needs tuplet brackets. The only tuplet brackets that I use in editing 18th and 19th century music is in the footnotes when I am writing out complex ornamentation, and not often.

Current publishers are doing a much better job of being authentic, as you showed in your examples. Wiener Urtext in particular. It goes back to the work of my hero Heinrich Schenker, Hans Bishcoff and other fine editors of the later 19th and early 20th century.

But there are still many things that are being misunderstood and lost in the engraving process.

Here is one example from the first prelude in the WTC I in the Henle edition. The notes with the arrows have up stems in Bach's manuscript. (This was first pointed out by Schenker in the 1920s.)

Bach Henle.png (292.18 KiB) Viewed 237 times

This is because there is a melodic gap between the F sharp and the following A flat. (Gounod actually filled this gap in with an extra measure and a bass G in his Ave Maria.) What Bach is telling us by changing the stem direction is that the F sharp leads to the G from below and the A flat leads to the G from above, but the F sharp is NOT leading to the A flat melodically. They are in two different "voices":

Bach WTC I.1B copy.png (1.21 MiB) Viewed 237 times