On Mon, November 19, 2007 2:50 pm, Noel Stoutenburg wrote: > In my view, it would depend upon the musical sophistication of the > likely users of the score. The more expert and familiar with early > music, the more one can omit both; the lower the level of > sophistication, the more necessary both accidentals are.
A few folks have said this, but it bothers me. Sophistication? Does that mean this sophisticated singer is going to be insulted by courtesy accidentals? Is the presence of courtesies actually a sales limiter? Will these sophisticated buyers put the score back on the shelf with a snort? And who knows what hands the score falls into, irrespective of its intended audience. What about future history, when score reading shifts? Scholarship changes, and I lived through the early music period of "yes, this is flat" and "no it's not" and Noah Greenberg's madness and published editions like (IIRC) Oxford's that did the old hands-off, putting every accidental as an editorial suggestion above the note. Will future performers have to re-research what was meant by the courtesy-free score, just to be sure to be sure? It's not like courtesies are some sort of pornographic stain on perfectly good white paper. Or are they to such sophisticated singers? In a grumbling mood, Dennis _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
