On 18 avr. 05, at 15:33, Williams, Jim wrote:
For music to be performed at sight or on only one readthrough, I will simplify spelling (this problem arises most often in diminished constructions or substitute harmonies) unless the simplification is grossly misleading (of course, I will do the F# in G minor).
The big question is: what do you mean by "simplifying" the spelling? In many situations a supposed "simplification" will make the passage harder to read. I am a very fast sight-reader at the piano: in my job I need to be able to play convincingly at first sight anything from the opera repertoire of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries (and I do mean anything: Janacek, Richard Strauss, Berg, Peter Maxwell Davies, whatever). I can read fluently if the way the harmonies are written makes sense in the style of the piece, but if a harmonic progression has been "simplified" so that (for instance) a dominant 7th chord on Db has a B instead of a Cb, this trips me up. I also often have to transpose pieces for the needs of different singers: it's much easier to transpose at sight if the piece is written using the correct harmonic spellings. So I wouldn't make a difference between stuff that is to be sight-read and stuff that can be rehearsed several times: always use theoretically correct spellings.
Michael Cook
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