NOTATIO

Poor musicians, when they are to make themselves accustomed to Tom Dick and Harry's individual notations! What happened to the belief in traditional notation? It may not be more right in itself, academically, but it certainly makes reading music easier, and safer, because it's more familiar - if we...

You are very welcome, Neera. The following article will tell you all about Arnold Arnstein. I was his assistant and copyist for about 6 years during the 1970s. He had just finished Barber's Anthony and Cleopatra and Piano Concerto when I came on board, and we did Bernstein's Mass among many other wo...

A belated welcome back, Neera. The transposed vs C score controversy has been going on for at least a century. Of the composers that Arnstein dealt with, it might have been 50-50. There are good strong reasons for both, and these days, one can easily have both versions. And the same with "trans...

For some reason, that explanation resonates to me for rests, but not for notes. I am completely comfortable with :ctime :5 :3r :4d (However, A. Arnstein probably would have split up the :4d which I would have disagreed with strongly.) That fact makes me wonder if I am not just reacting to the :4dr b...

Syncopated rests are so unclear to read. They certainly can be when interspersed in a confusing way. But, to play the devil's advocate, so can notes themselves, for example :ctime :3 :5d :3 What about simple cases of "trailing" rests? Is the :4dr really harder to read than the :3r :4r in ...

Beautiful and something to be very proud of. I had only a few minor comments. 1. The tenuto indications look too close to the note heads and beams when they are not between the staff lines. 2. The expressions like cresc. etc. are a little big in relation to the dynamic signs like p etc. I would spli...

I take it that Stravinsky knew the basic rules very well before abandoning some of them. One would like to think that he had thought it through and decided not to follow rules that he considered illogical. But the problem is that he does not seem consistent with these trailing dotted rests. So one ...

Very nice ties! :) As far as I know, the stem lengths don't have to match. At least that is what I see in well-engraved music. Perhaps others disagree. And yes, one should avoid doing anything with beams that obscures the outer staff lines and thus obscures reading ledger line notes. And there are v...

Our rules do change over time, often for quite practical reasons. True, of course. I hope we can agree upon this though: If you want to improve something in notational practise, it helps communicating about it if you know the traditional way you're abandoning. (BTW I don't doubt that you have this ...

That Schenker "forest of rests" makes me want to go into fits of ranting! Today, anyone who thinks that was a good choice should be dragged out back and given a private lesson! Maybe the lesson should be given in the woods hed :) The forest can also be seen at https://www.henle.de/us/deta...