At 8:41 AM 05/27/03, Christopher BJ Smith wrote: [answering me] >>I would add one point, though. The rule I've often seen, and which I >>prefer, is that when you're switching from sharps to flats or vice versa, >>you do not cancel the outgoing signature, but if you're switching from >>several sharps to not as many sharps, or from several flats to not as many >>flats, you do cancel the accidentals which are no longer applicable. > >No, no option exists for that in Finale. I happen to disagree with >that particular rule, though, so it is no hardship for me.
I think that rule came about as a halfway position the old and the new, the logic being that when switching from sharps to flats (or vice versa) the naturals are superfluous but otherwise they aren't. (This is the style used in Schirmer's latest series of opera aria anthologies (ed. Larson), freshly engraved and published in 1991.) I'm reasonably happy with the traditional always-cancel style, though I understand the logic of the halfway position. It came up for me when a client requested it. There was no single piece requiring both styles, so I was able to handle it by setting the document option differently in different files. Another thing that Finale doesn't seem to allow for is showing the canceling naturals after rather than before -- eg, when changing from Bb to F, write flat then natural rather than natural then flat. I've seen some publications that like to do it that way, presumably because it leaves the accidentals in their standard order, but as far as I can tell in Finale you have to do the naturals first, short of some elaborate kludge. Personally, I prefer the naturals first (which seems "normal" to me), so I have no problem with this. mdl _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
