NOTATIO

So, I would be very interested to know how Notatio members handle proofreading and will start another thread on the topic.

A subject that hasn't yet come up at Notatio is proofreading practice. I have always noticed differences in accuracy between the different publishers, which doesn't always correlate with their excellence otherwise. For example, the older G. Schirmer and Henle publications are remarkably accurate, wh...

With regard to this particular situation I totally agree with you that lining up layer two in the upper staff and the notes in the left hand is much better. I am glad that we see eye to eye on this one! Yet most editions go the other way, including the German first edition, which is inconsistent. I...

In Chopin's infamous (because of the difficulty) Etude op. 10 no. 2, there is a very interesting case of alignment involving seconds. Here is the French 1st edition, which, along with the MS, is generally the most important primary source for Chopin's music: Note that the LH on beats 3 and 4 of meas...

Knut, I'm glad I was clearer this time and you could see the illusion better. As you said, the stems attract attention, and this leads the eye along a strange path and away from the note heads. I agree that if one corrects for it, a sort of entasis, it should be very slight. I have always done such ...

To me, the unedited beats in the last example look aligned (more so than in the first example) Intriguing. For me, the effect is greater as the staves approach each other, possibly because angle between the stems becomes greater. What is also interesting, is that I see the illusion only in case A o...

Your fonts are always beautiful, Knut, and these are no exception. I am pretty sure that the alphabetic fonts would work well, but would need to see the numerical font in action to be able to judge it in a music context. Since you are requesting ideas, I would like to see the special symbols used in...

This is very strange, as it gives me the exact opposite impression. The compensated beats now look clearly misaligned to me. Oops. I thought you meant that the perfectly aligned ones at A would look better if the staves were closer together. To me they look worse. As far the compensated ones at C, ...

I was going to suggest the same idea, before your first example yesterday. But I didn’t feel confident that anyone would agree if I didn’t have the time to illustrate it properly. Good to know this was indeed an engraver’s trick for optical alignment. Thanks so much, MJCube. It is good to know that...

I'm inclined to agree, at least at first glance, if the notes are far apart. I do think, however, that the perceived misalignment is negligible, and any adjustments in it's regard may easily result in overcompensation. Here is the same example with the staves close together. For me, the effect is a...