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too much info?

Posted: 26 Dec 2022, 15:20
by MichelRE
is this too much information in this brief passage?
there's a melodic line right in the middle of a piano reduction that needs to be called out, but the voice leading is not obvious, and the line has to be shared between hands.
I used two little brackets to indicate hand directions, and then cross-staffed the final two notes, but included a dashed line to show that this was a continuation of the same short phrase.

but is it informational overkill? It's difficult for me to separate myself from the music enough to see it objectively.
I've been practicing the passage at the piano (it's an accompaniment) and trying to get comfortable with it. so it's hard for me to think in terms other than my playing it myself.

Re: too much info?

Posted: 27 Dec 2022, 20:52
by Anders Hedelin
Could this be an option - perhaps a little easier to read? Although I don't find your way at all impossible. (I take it the tempo is rather slow?)
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X.JPG (33.73 KiB) Viewed 7140 times

Re: too much info?

Posted: 27 Dec 2022, 22:28
by MichelRE
Yes, Anders, it's an Adagio.
I like your solution as well. it seems clearer, simpler.

the only thing I see, however, is the final Db and Eb in that middle voice, which you have in the upper staff, I'd rather have them played by left hand.
if I move them to the lower staff it makes for a strange slur!

I'm wondering if, in my version, I should flip the stems on the left hand 16th notes on beat 4? (to match the half note's direction, on beats 5 and 6)

Re: too much info?

Posted: 28 Dec 2022, 06:30
by Anders Hedelin
Or like this?
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X 2.JPG (34.24 KiB) Viewed 7123 times

Re: too much info?

Posted: 28 Dec 2022, 16:23
by MichelRE
it's funny how playing with something like this over and over, one can end up at the simplest - and actually most obvious! - result.
thank-you Anders.

And Happy Holidays.

Re: too much info?

Posted: 31 Dec 2022, 03:48
by John Ruggero
The options shown are fine, but if you wanted to keep the original version, you could leave out the dotted half rest in the left hand, and that would signal that the left hand is playing the downward stemmed notes in upper staff. Then you could omit the brackets and the dotted line, all of which have become unnecessary. Perhaps that is what you meant by "too much info". It would be the "classical" style of doing it in the days when brackets were not used.

As you pointed out, slurring a middle melody that runs from the lower staff to the upper and then back (or vice versa) is problematic.

Re: too much info?

Posted: 31 Dec 2022, 12:09
by MichelRE
thank-you John, yes, I see what you mean.
And of course, sometimes a composer is just too close to the material to see obvious solutions because they are still thinking in terms of the orchestral parts from which the music is drawn.

Re: too much info?

Posted: 12 Jan 2023, 18:31
by OCTO
MichelRE wrote: 26 Dec 2022, 15:20 is this too much information in this brief passage?
MichelRE, is it Dorico? I know you have been using Finale. Just curious.

Re: too much info?

Posted: 12 Jan 2023, 19:30
by MichelRE
OCTO wrote: 12 Jan 2023, 18:31
MichelRE wrote: 26 Dec 2022, 15:20 is this too much information in this brief passage?
MichelRE, is it Dorico? I know you have been using Finale. Just curious.
Yes it's Dorico.
I've basically witched to Dorico for all my engraving now.
There are only a few tasks with which I'm more comfortable working in Finale, and even that's slowly changing.