NOTATIO

I enclose a PDF of my thoughts on typefaces for dynamics. Let me know what you think. It shows a variety of music fonts, and my commentary on them, as well as text fonts that could be used as an alternative.

Much agreement from me. Opus dynamics are still my favorite so far, although I like the Sonata better. Maestro has very good form but too much stroke contrast; Engraver is clunky; the heavy strokes in Vienna are rather stiff (good for Second Viennese School, perhaps). November is clearly outlined from rough scans of Universal Edition rather than designed. (I think both approaches are important.) Oslo and Stockholm look like decent designs on their own but they don’t stand up to the uniformity of professional type designs; Stockholm has no sense of calligraphic line.

In addition to stroke weight, kerning, etc., some other issues I compare:
• Tilt angle: Engraver and Bravura are a bit too canted for my taste; Oslo and Stockholm don’t even match themselves; Maestro doesn’t match the other letters
• Counterforms, e.g., space inside the ball-terminals of and between the strokes of
• Cross stroke of too light in Stockholm, too heavy in Engraver & Bravura

The mp ligatures are an example of trying too hard. We wouldn’t be trying to design ligatures at all if Sonata hadn’t defined these combo dynamic markings in its original character set. The English terms ‘flowing’ and ‘non-flowing’ scripts are germane here: an italic text face has calligraphic elements, but not to the extent of actually connecting the letters as in a flowing script. It looks more natural to have the little tails of and appear to be reaching toward each other, but not touching.

MJCube wrote:The mp ligatures are an example of trying too hard. We wouldn’t be trying to design ligatures at all if Sonata hadn’t defined these combo dynamic markings in its original character set. The English terms ‘flowing’ and ‘non-flowing’ scripts are germane here: an italic text face has calligraphic elements, but not to the extent of actually connecting the letters as in a flowing script. It looks more natural to have the little tails of and appear to be reaching toward each other, but not touching.

The mp ligature didn't originate with Sonata. It does appear in plate engraved scores by certain renowned publishers. Whatever you think of it, using the legated version is optional, since most fonts include the m as well as the p as separate characters that easily can be entered as a text string.

The way I see it, it makes more sense to implement this glyph as an actual ligature than to make a composite glyph of two totally separate characters. The same goes for strings of multiple p and f which were indeed often truly ligated, long before Sonata came along.

My dislike is for the diagonal ligature stroke that runs the full distance of the x-height. It's confusing as it mimics the similar lines made by letterforms themselves. It may have been used traditionally, but I still don't like it!
Sadly, Maestro doesn't seem to have an 'm' so you can spell out mp.

Can anyone identify the square, slab, semi-serif that Novello editions used to use in the 70s for dynamics and other marks?

benwiggy wrote:Can anyone identify the square, slab, semi-serif that Novello editions used to use in the 70s for dynamics and other marks?

Do you have a sample? Or link to a PDF?

Here's a sample of the p.

I've found the m in Maestro. Weirdly, the TrueType and PostScript versions have them in different places.

benwiggy wrote: Can anyone identify the square, slab, semi-serif that Novello editions used to use in the 70s for dynamics and other marks?

It's pretty close to the City family by Georg Trump.
https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/berthold/city-pro/

benwiggy wrote:Can anyone identify the square, slab, semi-serif that Novello editions used to use in the 70s for dynamics and other marks?

I haven't seen that "Novello font" anywhere else, but Novello had used it at least since the end of the 19th century.
An example from 1899:
http://petrucci.mus.auth.gr/imglnks/usi ... a.Oboe.pdf

Interesting: cresc. and most other expression & technique text is also in that square font, but scherzando, largamente and rit. (between the 2 oboe staves) are set in a more usual italic, like the tempo marks.