De gustibus, etc.
The double-dotted half note on beat one is one of the most useful and
commonly used ways of notating ubiquitous swing rhythms like "long
note on one, short note on and of four" or (when tied to an eighth at
the end of the previous bar) "long chain of long notes on the and of
four." Carving those notes up into half-tied-to-dotted-quarter is
unnecessarily cluttered.
On the other hand, I think dotted rests longer than dotted eighth
rests in non-compound meters are not only a pain in the ass to read
but almost invariably look amateurish.
I think the rationale for allowing dotted notes but disallowing dotted
rests that have the same duration has to do with the psychology of
playing sustaining instruments. The most important thing is that the
location of the attack be absolutely, unmistakably clear to the
player, and rests that show the beat pattern clearly help people place
accurate attacks more easily.
Cheers,
- Darcy
-----
[email protected]
Brooklyn, NY
On 12 Mar 2009, at 8:16 PM, dhbailey wrote:
David W. Fenton wrote:
On 12 Mar 2009 at 7:21, Christopher Smith wrote:
you ignore the opinions of every recognised expert in the field
who has published a book on the subject. That HAS to count for
something?
For me, it counts for exactly ZILCH.
I've always wondered whether these "experts" (whose opinions I pay
attention to when they make sense to me) were experts who wrote
books on notation or did they write books on notation and by dint of
that fact alone have been accepted as experts.
Surely we could put together an equal and opposing number of
position papers on the use of dotted rests being A) clear to the
performer; B) as easy to read with a little practice as any other
facet of notation is for those who aren't comfortable with them; C)
more helpful in terms of indicating the phrasing than using undotted
rests to equal the same rhythmic space.
I'm with the "if it's clear and easy to read it's fine" school of
notation, which allows dotted rests and eschews double-dotted
notes. :-)
--
David H. Bailey
[email protected]
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