At 9:51 AM +0100 12/11/08, Florence + Michael wrote:
Good repeats are nice simple ones that just repeat a whole passage,
especially if they economise on pages turns.
Bad repeats are those that say "first time round jump to B, second
time round play these 8 measures, then jump to D, third time round
play everything up to E, then jump to Coda without passing Go (do
not collect $200)."
Gee, you must have seen some of the late medieval manuscripts of
dance pieces, which do exactly that and use a vocabulary of repeat
signs to try to make it clear! But of course in those days, space on
a page was REALLY dear, since every page of vellum had to be
hand-prepared from animal skin.
I have to say that the horror story about salsa or Salvation Army
charts struck a horrid chord for me. The last time I tried to save
arranging time ("gotta have it ready for rehearsal in 20 minutes!")
with nested repeats and multiple da segni WAS the last time, and I'll
never do it again, because it cost me big time in rehearsal time and
confusion. But when it comes to a choice between using repeats and
having more page turns--especially BAD page turns--the situation
isn't nearly as straightforward.
As a string player I'm used to having a stand partner to turn
pages--or to being that stand partner myself. But as a wind player I
really feel like cussing out editors who blithely ignore bad or
impossible page turns. And of course in jazz or commercial charts
this is a special problem in rhythm section parts, where there ARE no
rests!
John
--
John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music
Virginia Tech Department of Music
College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[email protected])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
"We never play anything the same way once." Shelly Manne's definition
of jazz musicians.
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