I know that I'm not alone in this. . . >From a clarinet player's perspective, in a fast moving, difficult piece with a lot of detail (rhythmic, dynamic, etc.), it is darned near impossible to read the second part when BOTH the first and second clarinet parts are on one staff. A third apart in the scoring is just way too close.
Consider that a composer can write something which is difficult and that the players are sight-reading, and lucky to have run through the work once before the concert. As a composer, would you trust those tricky passages to a player's ability to read what is on the page, when you have the option to write it separately? As was often the joke, King and Sousa marches which were on those 6 x 4" pieces of paper were frequently hard to play. . .the smaller the page, the harder the music. Another thing which bugs me, is when a composer insists on writing for Bass clarinet in bass clef and in A. I believe that Wagner would have really gotten complaints about his scoring, if he were writing today. Modern instruments are in B-flat, and treble clef is preferable. The best parallel I can think of relates manuscript to office resumes. Would you ever apply for a job, sending a cover page and resume on weird paper, in a size 8 font, using a commercial script type font? It's hard to read, and human resources people will generally put it aside, rather than decipher it. Just my 2 cents, Chris _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
