NOTATIO

I think there are many on this forum who'd like to believe yes, but I ‘hae ma doots’ (as some might say in this part of Scotland). To expand on that: if the music is sufficiently convincing, then any score that is better than dreadful should bring an effective performance from committed and suitably...

I use the Haupstimme sign from Fravura-Extra. I used to use Opus Special for this, but it doesn't seem to display correctly for me in Finale 25, although it was fine in older versions of Finale.

"The better, the composer, the better, the notation." While this is broadly true for manuscript notation (I think I may be a little less exacting than John: not just about this), does it also apply to a composer's computer notation? There can be some dreadful frustrations when trying to d...

But do most current composers use slurs to show phrases rather than legato? In a piece I wrote in 1968, I used some long phrase-marks/slurs after what I perceived as the fashion of Verdi. They indicated both phrases and enhanced vocal legato, bel canto as it were, so they were perhaps on the cusp o...

… … … I am still experimenting with that. The first top :3 is perfectly playable on the violin, while the second is on the edge of the fingerboard, while the last :3 goes far behind it, yet a tricky to perform, for someone impossible. It is to high and if one misses it, the very very high pitch wil...

Philip Rothman's Scoring Notes has just released the first of a sequence of on-line interviews with Elaine Gould.

Happy St Andrew's Day to any Scots out there!

The tenuto mark may be understood to have a meaning relating to bow pressure for string players, and one relating to tonguing on woodwind (although that last is open to discussion). As for ten. written over a note, when it is over a highish note in operatic arioso, the singer (especially if a tenor!...

I agree with you and have long complained of ill-defined articulation. As long ago as my adolescence (1950s) I complained that in a certain style of orchestral playing then prevalent all these (see screenshot) were likely to sound near enough the same, at least on tutti strings, but that I believed ...

These thoughts have developed on from the thread on tied final quavers. I have always understood that on orchestral instruments (bowed strings, woodwind and brass) there should be a different type of attack for each of these types of accent > , sf , fp and <> (as an accent). The first to be a sharp ...

To add to that, I've just checked some recordings of ‘standard repertoire’ (Bach, Brahms, Grieg, Kodaly &c) by the venerable cellist with whom I'm currently collaborating on a project. Except where a certain ‘bounce’ is implied, or something else is clearly notated, or there are technique reason...