NOTATIO

I'm still learning Dorico, having used Finale for about 26 years and manuscript since about 1950 (I'm 85: born in early 1941). Almost the first thing I learnt about using Dorico was ‘try not to interfere with the way it does things unless you really have to’. This is difficult for one of my ...

It will be interesting to see what the violinists say, but it looks clear to me.

FWIW here is a brief, twice played harmonic glissando, as I notated it back in 1978 (heavens: nearly 50 years ago!). It's from my first cello concerto. I suspect this may not be what you want, but in case it's of any passing interest… (I see the direction arco is missing after the pizz. It must have ...

I think 3+2 is probably the most standard (although the lopsided Waltz in Tchaikovsky's 6th symphony is 2+3). I'd choose 3+2 if there were no specific reason to do otherwise.

To add to what I said above about mixing languages, my personal view (no more) is that because it is perfectly normal to use phrases of musical Italian when speaking my own language of English, it is not intrinsically wrong to mix English with musical Italian for the directions within a score. I ...

I might connect the two parts of the direction with a conjunction such as ‘and’ or ‘then’ rather than just with a comma, and (if space allows) I'd probably put it all on one line.

FWIW I don't object to mixing languages in musical directions. I have occasionally done so myself (and I've been in ...

I think the clef makes sense only in choral scores where soprano, alto, and tenor are all written in the treble clef (as opposed to soprano, alto, and treble clefs), only because it helps the tenor staff to stand out more clearly amid a sea of treble clefs.…
Yes; and perhaps just as much so for ...

John Ruggero wrote: 04 Sep 2026, 23:52… … … What it is doing in wind parts is a mystery. Perhaps it is intended to be something special… … …

Maybe, play as if with a down bow attack? If somebody had asked me to do that on my trombone, I would have understood what they wanted (but then I had played the cello in adolescence).

Some of the first full scores I ever possessed (in the 1950s) were Ricordi editions of Verdi and Puccini, which employed the G/C clef hybrid for tenor voices. Ever since I have referred to this as the ‘Ricordi clef’.

In 1955, when I was 14, a generous (and rather grand) kinsman took me to Covent ...

FWIW (not much) I use the treble (G) clef with a small 8 below for tenor singers, but otherwise I never add an octave (or any other) transposition number to a clef.