NOTATIO

Yes, as with any innovation mezzo should be defined in a footnote. And because of the potential confusion pointed out by David Ward, perhaps restricted to instrumental music. I don't think I've ever seen mezza as an abbreviation of mezza voce in piano music, only m.v.

Just thinking out loud: A composer might n o t want to specify a dynamic level, particularly if the composer has associated dynamic levels with particular moods or qualities, forceful vs. lyrical for example. The mezzo version of the dynamic ( mf or mp etc.) might still be associated with the corres...

I agree with you, ehellner. I read that some use the term mezzo for a neutral dynamic level, which might be abbreviated m although that might not be distinctive enough in practice.

While you were writing that, I had edited my response above to include the exceptional center beaming cases you noted. Page 9 m. 5-6. This is exceptional, but one notes that only the piano has the structural cadencing melody line at this point: E flat E flat D flat. The notation might indicate great...

Firstly, is the cross-staff really advantageous? Wouldn't this be clearer if it was all in one staff? Ab below isn't that low; neither is D above It is much easier to read as written and traditional for this texture. (alla Schumann.) Faure wants the voice-leading to remain coherent to the eye. Ledg...

Despite the apparent prevalence of A in the literature, a logical problem with this notation occurs to me. Suppose an eighth note quadruplet is used to indicate a whole measure of 6/8 as in Rachmaninoff’s Suite no. 2: Rachmaninonff.png We now have an eighth note quadruplet indicating both a half mea...

Thanks, FredGUnn. That makes compete sense. All those surveyed are observing the "tuplets replace fewer real notes of the same note value" rule and making the exception only for the duplet, which is the rule followed by Arnstein. However, I would be very tempted to use C in situations like...

I think that the problem arises because tuplets replace fewer real notes of the same note value: 3:2, 5:4, 7:4 9:8 halves, quarters, eighths etc. but 2 is special because it is the numerical factor that defines the note values. For this reason, 2:1 can't follow the same value both in duple ( 2 :4 : ...

I'd play both the E and D with the right hand in both cases and place both notes on the upper staff with stems down. This would ease the performance as well as the notation. Then add a half and quarter rest in the upper staff in the second part of the first example and a dotted half rest in the seco...

Sent you a response, Neera.