On Apr 1, 2008, at 11:33 AM, Michael Cook wrote:
This question come up from time to time. Beaming the three eighth notes together cannot be considered as "wrong". Look at serious Urtext editions of Beethoven, Schumann or Chopin, where beaming is reproduced as the composers wrote it: both versions are seen and often corresponds to subtle differences in accentuation and phrasing. There is no reason not to keep both versions for new music: break the beam if the priority is rhythmic clarity or beam the notes together for a flowing passage à la Chopin (see his Waltzes).
I don't think anyone was making the argument that three eighths in a duple meter was WRONG, but it IS clearer not to do it except for triplets. As Darcy said, in newly written music, it is best to separate the odd eighth when there are only three. For the three composers you mentioned, they are clearly traditional composers, and I don't agree that there is no reason not to keep it (wow, that's a lot of negatives!) for modern music.
I don't indicate phrasing with beams in my music, so that way of thinking doesn't influence me much. I think it is much more important to keep a clear relationship with the metre, and beam accordingly.
I suppose there are many composers who DO indicate phrasing with beams, so of course this concept would not apply to them.
Christopher _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
