Oh, I don't mind complex, just not pages and pages of it to try out
every possible situation. Not practical, won't happen.
However, the list you give I am not going to do in full, it's just too
time consuming. But perhaps one doesn't have to do it all, and various
people can try their luck on the different tasks.
Johannes
Dennis Bathory-Kitsz schrieb:
At 05:59 PM 7/22/05 +0200, Johannes Gebauer wrote:
There is no possible way any such comparison is ever going to be totally
objective. Noone is going to enter if it involves doing endless pages of
complex notation. If I am going to enter the comparison I want it
limited, and I am not going to time it (that's not the way I work, I am
too perfectionist for that). But I would write a report on how I did
what and which things took time/were complicated/had me consult the manual.
3 pages at most. And no limitations like using MakeMusics default files
(I never use them), or not allowing any tweaking (that's silly) or not
using any third party additions.
I agree with you, except the complex notation and time issues.
It seems to me that the power of a program resides not in its defaults, but
in its flexibility in solving frequent notational challenges -- whether
it's an ossia or feathered beaming, tablature or chords, plainchant or
graphical inserts -- and solving those challenges both time-effectively and
in a legible, elegant, and stylistically appropriate way.
No program can do it all (in any presentational genre!), so that a program
that offers add-ons, plug-ins, scripts, etc., contributes significantly to
a strong result. (And, of course, there's the question of the effective
demo to accompany the score.)
A proper comparison, it seems to me, would include (as do performance
auditions) music from numerous genres. For me that might include a
comparison of settings of...
...a page of plainchant in appropriate fonts
...a page of Couperin complete with ornaments
...a page of a Bach cantata including figured bass
...the opening page of a tuplet-heavy Chopin prelude such as Op. 28 No. 8
(complete with ossia)
...a snippet of gigunda pages from Gotterdammerung or Gurre Lieder or Sacre
...a page of big band arrangement of Lush Life or a section from Mingus's
Epitaph or Bley's Escalator
...a middle page of Stravinsky's Anthem: A Dove Descending
...part of Berio's Gesti or Cage's Music of Changes
...and the killer, Stockhausen's Nr. 11 Refrain (back cover of the original
edition of Gardner Read)
What program could do them all, and do them well, time-effectively, and
produce a demo? (And I agree with Simon that a showcase might be more
effective than a competition.)
Dennis
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