On 7 Jul 2005 at 23:36, Owain Sutton wrote: > David W. Fenton wrote: > > > I think the use of a note as denominator would eliminate all these > > problems. 6/8 would become 2/Q., and would also allow one to notate > > 6/E if one actually wanted it. > > I would love this system...but.... > > > That makes far more sense than the absolutely idiotic 12/12. > > How would you replace 2/10, 7/24 etc?
I don't know, since I have seen no satisfactory explanation of what the hell these mean. I'm something of a Luddite in believing that things like Ferneyhough's Q=60.75 are completely idiotic. First off, nobody can tell without a point of comparison whether a performance is exactly at that fractional metronome marking, and secondly, no performers without a metronome could possibly match such a precise tempo. I'd also argue that not even the best performers could maintain such a tempo, especially in ensemble performance. Playing with a metronomic pulse drains all the music out of a performance, so nobody could possibly maintain such a precisely defined tempo, so I see no point in writing it out. This kind of thing is just complete gibberish, from my point of view, at least if the music is intended to be performed by human musicians. I also think that all the discussions about meters that try to maintain precise relationships between one meter and another are also overly picky. While metric modulations can be a guide to understanding what is intended, I think it's the rare performer who ever manages precisely what is indicated. Of course, I'm something of a heretic in the early music world for ignoring the relationships between meters there, too. I think it's better to take a precise relationship as a starting point, but then to adjust that for musical purposes. Composers who want to impose non-musical, computer-style metronomically precise tempo flow on performers should be writing for computers instead of for human beings. But I have no strong opinions on the subject. -- 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
