NOTATIO

I would be interested in comments from members of this forum about Brahms' notation here in his F minor Sonata Opus 120 No 1 (viola version) bars 184–186. (The example is from the Henle edition.) It seems clear and straightforward to me, but I expect one would not be encouraged to notate like this n...

Something like this? I think that's what I've done that has achieved what you are asking for.

You might make that ‘independently ad lib.’ if you feel it's safer, or even ‘individually ad lib.’.

I've rarely faced myself with this problem, but I like the third Gardner Read solution. I'll check later to see how I may have actually done this over the decades in manuscript, or indeed in Finale. (I got home on Sunday after over six weeks away to find the telephone line out of action through ligh...

Usually all singers will receive a copy of the complete vocal score, which will then be used for vocal coaching and rehearsals with a pianist. There are other approaches that are sometimes used eg I think for Mahler 2 the chorus just receives a choir part for the final bit of the symphony, but in ge...

I think Gould is right. I've used both notations without comment from the timpanist (I am not a timpanist myself), so I don't think it matters very much which you use.

The first thing I would like to ask is to define "art song", what is that? It's a slightly awkward term, but Art Songs are usually understood to mean songs for solo voice and piano suitable for classically trained singers, much the same as German Lieder or French Mélodies . The term can a...

… … … The only instrument written in alto clef, actually.… … … The alto trombone, a standard instrument of the classical and now actively revived as a modern (ie not just period) instrument is always written in the alto clef. As a consequence, many tenor trombone parts for, say, Schubert masses als...

I don't know if this is or is not a help, but these screenshots show how I presented such things in a 45 minute collection of songs I wrote during Covid lockdown, with particular reference to a compact cycle of short poems by Kipling (as a ‘true’ 15 minute cycle rather than separate songs). Although...

(and a quick question, there's a C in the piano left hand between two C# - 3rd measure beat 1 - but with no cautionary... is it a missing cautionary or a missing #? It is a missing cautionary… I'm away from home at present, and if things go to plan, not due back until about 8 December. I hope to ma...

As it happens, since 2020 and Covid lockdown, I've written about 80 minutes worth of art songs, long and short, one voice and two, all with piano. The screenshot shows my invariable indent. Later systems have no stave names if solo and abbreviated voice names if duet (but nothing for the piano). Thi...