Wither engraving skills?

Printing, binding, promotion and the business side of engraving.
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benwiggy
Posts: 834
Joined: 11 Apr 2016, 19:42

Wither engraving skills?

Post by benwiggy »

Hal Leonard are advertising a Music Editor job:

https://jobs.theguardian.com/job/6993730/music-editor/
You’ll have previous experience in commissioning and editing music and text, a music degree or equivalent and have achieved an outstanding ability level on either piano or guitar. A high competence in music theory is essential and you will also be able to demonstrate excellent music transcribing skills.
I suppose some knowledge of good engraving practice might be covered in "excellent music transcribing skills", but I'm curious: other than on the job, where is engraving taught? Do any music degree courses included modules in it?
Last edited by benwiggy on 12 Nov 2019, 10:26, edited 1 time in total.
MalteM
Posts: 67
Joined: 07 Aug 2018, 18:26

Re: Wither engraving skills?

Post by MalteM »

At my university in Germany there is a Finale course but AFAIK it aims at beginners. And I’ve seen some of our composition student’s scores which look terrible; last year I refused to premiere a piano solo work because the score (made with Sibelius) was unreadable.

Currently there is a discussion whether they should buy a campus licence of Finale or Sibelius. Because I’d had bad experiences with both I proposed Dorico (which I don’t know but heard good things about) and MuseScore (because that’s what many students use anyway so no money is spent on software that no one uses …). In the near future I’ll hold a LilyPond workshop but I’m just an enthusiast user, not a professional engraver …

It’s not that we don’t have experts at the university. But the one lecturer I have in mind won’t give engraving lectures because that’s not what he is paid for. Elaine Gould was here some months ago but only for a few hours and few people (10–20) attended her lecture.
benwiggy
Posts: 834
Joined: 11 Apr 2016, 19:42

Re: Wither engraving skills?

Post by benwiggy »

But is the course teaching how the software works, or how you should use it?
MalteM
Posts: 67
Joined: 07 Aug 2018, 18:26

Re: Wither engraving skills?

Post by MalteM »

The Finale course? I’ve attended only the first few lessons* which taught only how the software works. I don’t know whether something like engraving rules would be covered in later lessons.

I’ll try to teach some basic engraving rules like notation of rests in different meters in my LilyPond workshop but for now it’ll be only one Saturday so there won’t be much time for that …

* After I realized that Finale 2014 still had some of the bugs that had annoyed me in Finale Allegro 1998 (like crashes during MIDI playback and accidentals covering bar lines and stems in default layout) I decided not to try to learn Finale anymore.
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OCTO
Posts: 1742
Joined: 05 Oct 2015, 06:52
Location: Sweden

Re: Wither engraving skills?

Post by OCTO »

I think that graduate composition studies should have Notation included as a subject/course, and as well one of notation software.

But I believe that the most important is to have a heavy portfolio of fine engraved scores.

quote=benwiggy post_id=6932 time=1573554346 user_id=165]
But is the course teaching how the software works, or how you should use it?
[/quote]
Or how scores should look like.
Freelance Composer. Self-Publisher.
Finale 27.3 • Sibelius 2023.5• MuseScore 4+ • Logic Pro X+ • Ableton Live 11+ • Digital Performer 10+ /// MacOS Monterey (secondary in use systems: Fedora 35, Windows 10)
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