Man, do I ever agree with the latest post here. I am unalterably
opposed to any notational problems which inhibit the learning process.
If one wishes to stall out a church choir rehearsal, throw in a
liberal dose of crossed voices on one staff; switch the position of the
text placement; use two or three verses worth of text for the same
music, except change the durations slightly to fit the new textual
demands; go back and forth between open and closed score; and oh yes,
render the text in some arcane language ...say, Latin. Just plan to
have a seat and start answering questions. You may have noticed that I
retired from my particular trench only yesterday!
Dean
On Dec 20, 2004, at 3:52 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Absolutely agree. I think hymnbook style is appropriate for (mostly)
homophonic music. But I see music where the Sops and Altos have quite
different rhythms and lines, (sometimes even with a lot of the Sops
crossing below the Altos), and it's notated in one staff. It's hard to
sightread, and takes up rehearsal time.
----- Original Message -----
From: John Howell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Monday, December 20, 2004 1:18 pm
Subject: Re: [Finale] The state of the art: a report from the trenches
At 10:27 AM -1000 12/20/04, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
There is also a fair amount of scoring SATB as SA and TB where it
really ought to be split into 4 staves. *sigh*
Well, that's hymnbook style as opposed to choral score style. I
use
both, as appropriate. Specifically, when I'm writing for someone
and
I will not be there to clarify things, or writing for publication
(which I'd love to do more of!), I will use 4 staves because
that's
expected. But there's a problem with that when it comes to
divisi.
If I want to go from SA to SSA or SAA, I have to put the third
note
on either the soprano staff or the alto staff. But what I might
actually intend is SMA, with equal numbers of sopranos, mezzos and
altos, and I always wonder whether the average choir director will
take that into consideration. (One of my faculty colleagues at
Indiana University assigned the women in his ensemble to S1, S2,
and
A, but then had all S1s and S2s sing the soprano line when the
voicing was SATB, giving a soprano-heavy sound I didn't especially
care for.)
Writing for my own college groups, though, in pop styles that were
mostly homorhythmic, I used 2 staves, SA and TB. This allowed me
to
go from unison on each staff to 2-part to 3-part to 4-part very
easily, and I did quite a lot of that. If I got into contrapuntal
passages, of course I switched to as many staves as there were
parts.
It never seemed to bother my students (the men) to switch from
tenor
G-clef to bass clef in the middle of a chart when it was
necessary.
And when I sent out acceptance letters before the start of fall
semester, I included a chart specifying which part each singer was
to
sing in 2-, 3-, or 4-part divisi.
Editing for my early music ensemble, I make the barlines invisible
when the music seems to need it, and my singers have gotten used
to
it and are less locked into barline rhythms and more likely to
shape
their phrases according to the text accentuation. But again, I'm
in
charge of those rehearsals and can clarify any questions.
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
([EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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Para m�, la m�sica es la respiraci�n de la vida y de Dios.
Per me, la musica � l'alito della vita e di Dio
Pour moi, la musique est le souffle de la vie et de Dieu.
F�r mich ist Musik der Atem des Lebens und des Gottes.
Dean M. Estabrook
Retired Church Musician
Composer, Arranger
Adjudicator
Amateur Golfer
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