I must agree with Chuck on this. I've been using the Maestro font with many of Bill Duncan's fonts for a few years now. The clarity and simple elegance of Bill's chord font is wonderful and conforms to the Roemer/Brandt recommendations for chord symbols. I did use the Jazz font for a while and even bought it before it started shipping with Finale. But now I can't really stand it, looks like very amateur hand copying. I even tried Rich Sigler's Swing font which is somewhat cleaner, but eventually stopped using it as well.
I'm all for Bill developing a jazz articulations font set to match the look of the Maestro and Engraver font sets. As for a listing of jazz articulations, I've found the following:
Roemer: The Art of Music copying, pg. 35
Nestico: The Complete Arranger, pg. 9
Read: Music Notation, pg. 416
Dobbins: Jazz Arranging and Composing, pg. 148 (only a few are listed)
If people find others (which I'm sure there are many) please add them to the list.
On another note, I'm on a mission to have Sibelius add Bill Duncan's chord font. The only set available right now is their proprietary Opus Chord font which is basically a TNR serif font. If other Sibelius users feel the same way, please let the company know.
Thanks,
Greg
Greg Hamilton Music Service
2980 Corona Drive
Burnaby, BC V3J 1B8
Tel: 604.444.9218
www.greghamiltonmusic.com
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Chuck Israels <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: October 26, 2005 11:32:22 AM PDT
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Finale] Possible new fonts (jazz chords and articulations)
Reply-To: [email protected]
Just for the record, I have said before that I prefer the Maestro/Duncan combination to the jazz font (and any other hand written style font I've seen), even with the scoops, bends and fall-offs from the jazz font when they are necessary. Please, no flames. This is just one person's preference - based on considerable experience, but still, just an opinion. If Bill is able to come up with a set of jazz articulations (not so many, really) that look as if they belong to Maestro, I'll be happy enough.
I do like fonts, and design, and elements that ad beauty and interest to the graphic representation of music, but in the end, it's clarity and ease of communication of the musical idea that trumps everything else for me, and I find Maestro less distracting than the Jazz font. If Eric is co nting votes in this informal poll, David Berger falls into the camp that doesn't like the Jazz font. He thinks it looks like the work of a bad copyist.
Chuck
Chuck Israels
230 North Garden Terrace
Bellingham, WA 98225-5836
phone (360) 671-3402
fax (360) 676-6055
www.chuckisraels.com
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