On 10 Aug 2006 at 13:52, John Howell wrote:

> At 9:33 PM -0400 8/9/06, David W. Fenton wrote:
> >
> >I hate editions that take away my choices. Printing the original
> >notation with an ossia suggested realization would do the job, I
> >think, and making it clear that the performer was free to disregard
> >the ossia suggestion.
> 
> In general I agree absolutely with this.  But the discussion shows
> that editions are prepared for different audiences.  Most of mine, at
> this point, are for students who are still learning the style in an
> ensemble situation with limited rehearsal time, not for those, like
> you, who understand both the questions and the variety of the answers.

Do you give your students music like that? In my experience, most 
students can't handle ornamentation of any level of complexity or 
subtlety until they've reached a level of real proficiency on their 
instrument such that playing "little notes" without making them sound 
too important is very easy.

Nonetheless, I would do the same as I described above for students at 
*any* level. For pros, I'd likely leave out the ossia (though have a 
discussion of the realization of the ornament in the explanatory 
notes and a footnote to that in the score/parts). For a general 
purpose edition, I'd include the ossia and the explanatory note (if I 
had a justification for the realization or wanted to offer 
alternative interpretations).

>  Yes, if an all-purpose practice is possible, this would be it.  The
> question of whether to provide a realization of the b.c. is similar,
> but generates even more strongly held opinions.

I still think it's good to provide them, but I always provide a bass 
part alone with no realization and figures in addition to the bass 
part with no figures for the gamba/cello player. When I'm playing 
continuo bass, though, I actually prefer a part with figures, as 
those give me musical information about phrasing and expression 
(e.g., a 6 chord very often leads very strongly to the next chord).

-- 
David W. Fenton                    http://dfenton.com
David Fenton Associates       http://dfenton.com/DFA/

_______________________________________________
Finale mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale

Reply via email to