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by John Ruggero
05 Feb 2024, 13:35
Forum: Notation Rules and Standards
Topic: Another Mozart Centered Beam
Replies: 16
Views: 1913

Re: Another Mozart Centered Beam

I get your point about the Mozart example though. I guess this is not a generally understood and accepted device, but something that lives on a more personal individual plane? I think that the centered beam, like so many aspects of music notation, is capable of many different meanings. While genera...
by John Ruggero
05 Feb 2024, 13:23
Forum: Notation Rules and Standards
Topic: Another Mozart Centered Beam
Replies: 16
Views: 1913

Re: Another Mozart Centered Beam

Yes, the early version in the WF Bach Notebook shows a completely different and what seems to me to be a somewhat disorganized usage. The subject in the bass in measure 1 has inconsistent stem direction and the subject in measure 2 is set off with a centered beam that results both in inconsistent an...
by John Ruggero
04 Feb 2024, 13:10
Forum: Notation Rules and Standards
Topic: Another Mozart Centered Beam
Replies: 16
Views: 1913

Re: Another Mozart Centered Beam

Continuing regarding apparent inconsistency in the use of centered beams: Many centered beams seem to be a manifestation of a tendency to avoid changes of stem direction in the middle of a musical unit, be it a motive, sub-phrase or even a whole phrase. I have seen this tendency in the works of Bach...
by John Ruggero
04 Feb 2024, 00:04
Forum: Notation Rules and Standards
Topic: Another Mozart Centered Beam
Replies: 16
Views: 1913

Re: Another Mozart Centered Beam

When I first encountered this centered beam, I asked myself the same question. The issue is complicated. A simple answer might be that Bach (and other composers and engravers of his time) avoided centered beams when ledger lines were involved to avoid reading difficulties. This is clearer in the ori...
by John Ruggero
03 Feb 2024, 03:49
Forum: Notation Rules and Standards
Topic: Another Mozart Centered Beam
Replies: 16
Views: 1913

Re: Another Mozart Centered Beam

You are both very welcome!

OCTO., the analytical example for the Mozart was done in Dorico, which I am now using exclusively. The last Bach example was done in Finale many years ago. The second Bach example is from the NBA.
by John Ruggero
01 Feb 2024, 19:04
Forum: Notation Rules and Standards
Topic: Another Mozart Centered Beam
Replies: 16
Views: 1913

Re: Another Mozart Centered Beam

Ah, authenticity, what a difficult and deep topic! And a for that reason an excellent topic for discussion! If it were to be "authentic", then why not use the soprano clef directly? I don't believe in "authenticity" for its own sake. But I do believe in preserving what the compo...
by John Ruggero
31 Jan 2024, 15:01
Forum: Notation Rules and Standards
Topic: Another Mozart Centered Beam
Replies: 16
Views: 1913

Re: Another Mozart Centered Beam

I'm not sure, though, that a centered beam would make me play the music differently. Here is another example. Would the centered beam in Bach's manuscript of Invention 1 cause you to show the subject and counter-subject more: Invention 1 MS.png than if had been written without the centered beam as ...
by John Ruggero
30 Jan 2024, 13:57
Forum: Notation Rules and Standards
Topic: Another Mozart Centered Beam
Replies: 16
Views: 1913

Re: Another Mozart Centered Beam

Thanks, Neera. I would say that most centered beams were used because long stems took up too much space at a time when space was limited, as you implied, and I also think that they were considered ugly. (I might add that we still use centered beams for these two reasons today but only for much large...
by John Ruggero
25 Jan 2024, 18:44
Forum: Notation Rules and Standards
Topic: Another Mozart Centered Beam
Replies: 16
Views: 1913

Re: Another Mozart Centered Beam

Continuing on... The centered beam also shows an important moment where the theme suddenly resumes the opening register to complete the main melody and bass lines: Mozart K 280.3 analysis.png In this way it is somewhat similar to: https://notat.io/viewtopic.php?p=7910&hilit=centered+beam+in+Beet...
by John Ruggero
24 Jan 2024, 17:28
Forum: Notation Rules and Standards
Topic: Another Mozart Centered Beam
Replies: 16
Views: 1913

Another Mozart Centered Beam

This sighting is from the last movement of Mozart's Piano Sonata K. 280. I think that it bears out my contention that some centered beams were to be understood as phrasing indications. The centered beam sets off the last note of the brilliant run from the cadencing sixths that are the origin of the ...