On Jun 21, 2007, at 8:56 AM, Andrew Stiller wrote:
I think that Beethoven and Mozart would have used Finale if it
were available back in their day.
This is definitely a generational issue. When I started using
Finale in 1991 there was still a whole generation of composers
out there who never used a computer for anything, and saw no point
in adopting the new technology. Most of them are dead now.
My generation, the boomers, mostly use Finale as an engraving
tool--that is, we compose on paper (using piano to test chords,
counterpoint etc.), then when everything is done, use Finale to
make the fair copy and extract the parts.
I realize that the vast majority of younger composers work directly
in Finale, but I confess I cannot even conceive how that could be
done smoothly, since I, at least, would find myself constantly
distracted by engraving issues (supressing cautionary this'n'that
between movements, frinstance) that have no bearing on the act of
composition itself.
Andrew Stiller
Kallisti Music Press
http://www.kallistimusic.com/
I agree that this is a generational issue, although I'm one of the
older crowd (age 61) who has almost completely replaced the pencil
and paper with Finale. I find that I can use Finale just like pencil
and paper most of the time. I have templates set up ahead of time
for various ensembles, so I don't get bogged down at the very start
of a piece by those issues. I've worked in Finale long enough now
that other notational issues don't really bog me down, although I
wouldn't even attempt to do rhythm section parts for playback in
Finale. Instead I use MOTU's Digital Performer (DP), my sequencer of
choice, for those parts. I find that for some projects I can work
completely in Finale, start to finish, and in others I work in DP for
playback and then go to Finale for the score and parts. When I do
start a project in DP, because of Finale's poor rendering of imported
MIDI files, I have to start over from scratch and redo the entire
piece in Finale. (I guess I'm one of those who should "open a case"
with MM for better MIDI importation.) In an attempt to get better
notation features in DP, I've complained about this to MOTU,
explaining that I feel that I have to do my work twice. They tell me
that I should think of it as doing half my work in DP and half in
Finale, but if I'm entering exactly the same music twice in two
different programs, that can only mean that I'm doing my work twice.
But I've accepted the fact that this is the way I have to work, and
have done so for a number of years.
I think the biggest problem with working the way I do is the tendency
to write only what can be rendered satisfactorily in Finale or
Digital Performer. In other words, I sometimes feel that my writing
tends to be too "safe." When I listen to other composers that I
admire, such as Maria Newman, or my former composition teacher, Erica
Muhl, (both are quite a bit younger than me, BTW) their writing is
much more adventurous, because they're writing for the real
instruments, rather than a MIDI imitation of those instruments. I'm
afraid that young aspiring composers are often falling into this trap
without any realization that they're doing it.
********************************************
Lon Price, Los Angeles
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
<http://www.txstnr.com>
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