On 24 Jan 2007 at 15:14, Kim Patrick Clow wrote: > Please forgive me, I don't have the Ted Ross book to refer to, but > what are wedges in a Finale file, and why are they evil? Thanks. Are > there any graphic images of these online?
Ted Ross doesn't outline a notational style that is specific to the repertory you're working with, so I wouldn't cite him as any kind of authority. The NMA, for instance, use thin wedges and plain vertical bar strokes (they also failed to come to the right conclusion as to whether they should be distinguished from dots and thus make arbitrary choices in conveying the readings in many of Mozart's autographs, where there is simply no bright line dividing dots from strokes). Wedges are a 19th-century innovation, used to indicate a sharp staccato shorter than the simple dot. They don't exist in any form approaching the wedge shape before about 1820, in my experience (printed or MS). Before that time there were only dots and strokes and whether or not those were symbols distinct articulations, or just varieties of the same articulation (with no performance difference intended) is a big controversy. I come down on the side of no distinction except in a very small number of specific situations (the Riggs hypothesis). I can't see any other explanation for the multiplicity of variant readings in the contemporary sources. -- 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
