On Dec 14, 2005, at 9:21 PM, John Bell wrote:
Darcy James Argue wrote:
The dotted half rest + fermatta in the resting gives maximal rhythmic
clarity (short of cueing the actual notes). It just looks odd, since
it's not usually used in 4/4.
If the consensus is that the dotted half + fermatta looks odd enough
(or inelegant enough) to actually _throw_ people, then I'll use cue
notes, as Bill suggested.
I agree that a dotted half rest in 4/4 is not very usual, but I
wouldn't say it was non-standard (I think you used that expression
earlier) and I certainly wouldn't call it wrong. Most importantly, I
think it would be crystal-clear to the players.
For what it's worth, I agree with John here. For maximum clarity
everyone would understand that the tempo stops on beat 2, and resumes
on beat 1 of the following measure. I have actually used this exact
solution many times in my own music.
In similar situations I see all too often a simple whole rest with a
fermata in the resting parts, even when the playing parts continue
playing up to last sixteenth of beat 4. I don't suggest it, but I
mention it here just to show how a lack of clear indications of given
beats in the measure can be overcome by musicians following a
conductor. So I don't think anyone is going to sweat your dotted half
rest...
With all respects to Chuck and his idea of a preparatory beat, I find
it MUCH more confusing to have empty beats given when nobody plays, so
I would not endorse this (even if it was your own work, which I
understand is not the case.)\
Christopher
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