I place things by what looks good to my eye, which is based on over 40 years of reading music. So I can't tell you "move that thing .25 inches up and .013 inches to the left."
You have done a lot of very good work. Not having a copy of the original I can't really comment on how accurate things are, but if you put them where they were in the original, then you're all set.
You do have some spacing issues, such as the p./1 half-note too close to the dotted-quarter.
There's an 8th rest in the middle of the treble staff in the bottom system of page 2 that needs to be moved down.
You can change the syncopation settings for music you are playing in (I don't imagine you played this in) in the Quantization Settings under the Midi menu. It's a couple of screens deep.
I always lengthen the inverted stems, preferring them to match the normal stem length most of the time. I don't like the look of Finale's shortened stems.
To your question 1: The engraving would be publishable, even if the work itself isn't publishable by you. The engraving would be publishable if you can find a publisher who needs an engraver and likes your work. Any of us are only as employable as we happen to suit a particular client's needs. As for is it impressive, not especially to me, but then that's because I could do the same. To a potential client who is a composer/arranger with chicken-scratch manuscript it would be very impressive. The name Alcotts sort of gave it away, so I wasn't impressed when the name Charles Ives popped up on the screen.
To your question 3: what does this show? It shows that you can use Finale to make readable music. If I were in a position to hire you it would only impress me if this were the type of music I needed engraved. If my music were more on the level of Mozart piano sonatas, Ives wouldn't do much for me. So you should include music from all periods, and if possible take some old manuscript that there aren't modern engraved editions for and turn it into legible Finale output. THAT would impress many composers.
Not seeing the original you worked from, it's hard to tell if this was really a challenge or merely copying what some other engraver had already done.
I don't think you need to impress your clients with how "out" your portfolio is, as much as you will need to impress them with your depth of engraving ability, your business skill, your professional attitude and approach. Do you have forms made out for giving people estimates on projects? Do you have contracts ready to go that have been gone over by a lawyer? And very importantly do you have letters of recommendation from others who have used your services?
This is a fine example to put in your portfolio, now do some piano-vocal pop music, do some guitar tablature, do a few pages of orchestral score, do string quartets from the late Romantic, do some aleatoric music, do some choral music (with and without piano reduction), do a few pages of opera score, do an unaccompanied Bach work for violin or cello.
And hang out your shingle and wait for the dust to grow, like many of us do.
Or go knock on doors like Warner Brothers and Hal Leonard and Southern Music and Theodore Presser, and on and on and on and see what sort of reception you get.
Good luck! David
Keef wrote:
Hi, gang.
Please critique this pdf, a piano score (albeit a strange one). All serious responses are welcomed and encouraged -- general impressions are welcome as well. It is my best candidate for "modern" piano score, even if the music is nearly 100 years old. Please note this is a total knockoff, about four hours worth of my work (only two mugs of coffee), intended as a break from the score I'm working on so my eyes won't go completely buggy. The biggest slowdown was Finale's weird habit of simplifying syncopations (any method of completely turning this off?) I don't consider it perfect --- the ties need help, please advise as to how you would go about resetting these -- however I do consider it about 85%-95% correct.
http://mysite.verizon.net/vze22zdy/alcotts.pdf
or if you have trouble accessing it from there, try the link at:
http://mysite.verizon.net/vze22zdy/index.html
1. Is it in the realm of publishable? Does it say "professional" or "wannabe" (be serious please)? Is this remotely impressive? What's your initial reaction when the score pops up and you actually see what piece it is?
2. What would you do differently, and how would you go about changing it from this form (please give numerical numbers when talking about resizing if you can -- i.e. this looks like it might want to shift a XXX EVPUs, or this might want to be resized to XXX%)? Since most of this piece is unmetered, and consequently there are no measure numbers, please let me know which line you mean if you get specific, i.e, p.2/3 or what a close marking is (and there's quite a few absolutely weird ones that only occur once or twice). Oh yes ... the weird note spellings are as written -- respelling isn't an issue. That's been scrubbed to *death* considering the nature of this score. All voicings, cross staffs, beaming, directions, marking placings, etc. are as the composer intended, with the exception of two accent marks.
3. What do you think this would show were I to include it in a portfolio? What value would seeing it have to you were you considering employing me? Is it "too out"? Is it "just out enough"? Does it demonstrate that I like a good challenge?
Thanks in advance. Keef.
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-- David H. Bailey [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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