David W. Fenton wrote:
On 10 Dec 2008 at 11:27, John Howell wrote:
I've actually run into that very thing in Broadway
books, specifically in "The King & I." I was asked to make a cut at
a certain point in a certain number, discovered that some parts had
repeated bars (and LONG endings!) while others did not, and it
probably took us at least 15-20 minutes to solve that stupid problem.
It probably saved the copyist something like 10 minutes work, and has
been plaguing musical directors and wasting time in the pit ever
since!
And yet, in the 18th and early 19th century, this was incredibly
common in both MSS music and in printed editions. For both, it may
not have been a matter of saving copying/engraving time, but of
saving paper, which was relatively more expensive than paying the
copyist/engraver.
Of course, it's also the case that a lot of old sources that were
clearly used have uncorrected errors in them (wrong notes, even
missing measures), so it's unclear to me how they managed to use
them.
I'm certainly not arguing for the practice, just pointing out that
there was once a time when the balance of rehearsal time vs. savings
came out, apparently, differently.
I think that in the time period of which you are speaking
there was much more consistency of form and of expectations
from the musicians. They sort of knew where to go and when,
sort of the way jazz musicians know when playing from a head
arrangement.
In a common "language" it's easy to use abbreviations which
get everybody to the same place at the same time even if by
different routes.
It's only when such commonality is lost that confusion
begins to set in and valuable rehearsal time is lost.
Heck, even with Strauss waltzes when they have the same
first/second endings in all the parts, people get confused
about where to go back to when, from which D.S., etc. simply
because as a general rule people these days aren't used to
playing that sort of convoluted form. But I'm sure
Strauss's musicians had no problem with such things, even
when presented with a new waltz.
--
David H. Bailey
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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