Jack Campin wrote:
[ ordinarily I do not attribute posters I respond to, but this is such mind-blowingly offensive, arrogant, counterproductive authoritarian shite that no way could I ever forget the name of the author or want it mistakenly attributed to anybody else ]
Jack, are you sure you're not doing poor Steven wrong here? Seems to me you interpreted his posting in the worst possible way.
Every musical notation there has ever been has been adapted by people who needed something different to express what they needed to say, and weren't prepared to wait for a committee to approve them saying it.
You're right, Jack.
It never ceases to amaze me that some people seems to think that the rules of standard notation was written down on stone tablets and handed down to us by the pantheum of great classical composers.
It's nothing like that. Standard "tadpole" notation has gradually evolved and been adapted to different purposes for about seven centuries, and is still evolving today.
By now, it's all so patchy you have to look very closely to spot the original - very clear and logical - idea at all.
If the computer is simply going to sit there as a censor stopping me saying what I want, well, fuck the computer, I can write ABC on paper perfectly well (and have done, I have a stack of notebooks of it).
Good point, but I don't think ABC will ever become the ultimate cover-all-bases music notation system. In fact I hope it won't. The need for completeness is very much in conflict with the need for simplicity.
Frank Nordberg http://www.musicaviva.com
To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
