Aaron Sherber wrote:
At 09:23 PM 7/6/2004, Darcy James Argue wrote: >However, I will freely admit that I did not intend to write "uncooth", >that "uncouth" is far, far more widely accepted and widely used (90 >000+ Google hits for "uncouth" versus 895 for "uncooth"), and that I >have no particular rational reason to go against the grain in this >case. Given all of that, I'm pretty comfortable calling "uncooth" a >mistake on my part.
Just so I understand where you're coming from, are you really unwilling to call "uncooth" an incorrect spelling, here in the English-speaking world of the early twenty-first century?
If I wrote the key signature for Bb major with the Eb before the Bb, is that really just "unconventional"? If you were grading my theory assignment, would I not lose points for being wrong?
Bartok, at least in Microcosmos, puts the F# on the bottom space, since that's where the note is that is affected by that sharp. Definitely unconventional, but is it really wrong? Would you accuse Boosey & Hawkes of not understanding the conventions of key signatures? Yet they publish those books. Would you accuse one of the great composers of not knowing enough about music to understand key signatures and their conventions?
Let me see, now, in two hundred years, whose name will be in the music history books? Aaron Sherber, who seems to imply that there is only one way to write key signatures, or Bela Bartok, who wrote music as he felt it ought to be notated for more clear communication? Let me think about it now. Hmm, it's a toss-up. Guess we'll have to wait and see.
How many teachers have graded as wrong works by people who have gone on to great things by breaking the same conventions that their teachers tried hard to uphold?
Clear communication is what's important in typing or in music engraving. Rigidly adhering to what's been done in the past as somehow being the only correct way to do things doesn't get us anywhere.
No, I'm not advocating the overthrow of the system of notating key signatures as it has evolved, I'm just pointing out that some people who are experts have disagreed with it, proving that there really is more than one way of doing things.
We each need to decide what best communicates our ideas.
-- David H. Bailey [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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