On 12 Sep 2004 at 11:26, Mark D Lew wrote: > Every opera in the standard repertoire is readily available in piano > reduction, and that includes the non-vocal numbers of the opera > (overtures, interludes, etc.). That gives you a very wide range of > orchestral styles to pick from -- Mozart, Rossini, Offenbach, Wagner, > Strauss, etc.
But there is a wide variation of quality in these piano reductions. I recently finished playing continuo for Handel's Alcina, and we used the B�renreiter piano/vocal score. In preparing myself, I thought the reductions were terrible, but once I got into rehearsals, found out that they were actually quite good, and carefully preserved the difference in the reduction between notes coming from the orchestra parts and notes that were realized from continuo (continuo notes were smaller). This is something that did not become clear to me until I started accompanying rehearsals. However, as a representation of the original textures, what was in the reductions was not too good, in my opinion. But as *rehearsal aid*, they were excellent, in that everthing that the singers need to figure out what to sing was in the reduction. (of course, playing continuo, I didn't play at all what was in the reduction, but I did accompany rehearsals on piano where I had to do more than just play continuo) -- David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton David Fenton Associates http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
