On 22 Jan 2010 at 22:20, Mark D Lew wrote: > On Jan 22, 2010, at 5:52 AM, David W. Fenton wrote: > > > I'm not that picky, though I don't produce the stunningly beautiful > > scores that folks like Dennis Collins do (I'm not sure I've ever seen > > your engraving, but my bet is you're much pickier than I am -- I'm > > just trying to get performable parts and scores ready before > > rehearsals begin). > > I have different standards for different contexts. I'm a big > believer in increasing readability for vocal music to be sung from > the page, even if it entails some non-standard practices. Also, I > find that readability and beauty are not always the same thing, and > in many contexts I'm willing to sacrifice the latter for the former.
Well, I'm producing separate scores/parts for the singers and the viol players. Indeed, in some cases, I may not produce a score for singers/organist at all, as the source editions are fine. In the case of the Scheidt, the only reasons I produced an edition were: 1. to get the top two parts out of treble clef 8ba -- it's not that the players in the group can't read that just fine, it's just that when you're accustomed to playing in alto clef in that range, the one- step difference in line/space can mess with your head, and cause slips when the performance nerves kick in. We try to limit our bass viol parts to bass and alto clef, and the tenor viol parts to alto clef alone. Given that two of the four main players have to switch instruments (one bass player doubles on treble, and for this concert, I'm doubling on bass and tenor, after 18 months of playing tenor exclusively), keeping the clefs to the minimum is a good thing. Again, it's not that we *can't* do it, it's just that we'll play better if we don't have to play in 3 or 4 different clefs on 2 different instruments each (I've done it and it's not fun unless you have lots of time to get comfortable with the music). 2. since we're performing many of the pieces with 4 viols and the music involved has 4 independent viol parts plus the continuo line, the bottom bass viol player has to double as continuo bass, so in the case of the Scheidt, I was combining the continuo bass line (when the tutti group isn't playing, just the organ and singers) into a single part for the bass player (who happens to be me, and in this case has to tune the bottom string down a step to cello C, which I don't mind doing as it's just not that hard to deal with). In any event, there's no real reason that the singers would need to use my edition, except for the phrasing that's been incorporated (just breath marks to show where the phrases end). In the case of other pieces, my editions are more readable than the source editions, so I'm preparing separate scores for the singers/organist. For most of the pieces, the viols are playing from parts or from "half scores," where there's a part with a 2-system part with the top two or the bottom two parts. In other cases when the music has fewer or more parts and I have to do something different, but the point is, each piece is different and what I'm preparing is based on what takes the least work to get the best performance. Singers don't need to worry about page turns, but the organist does (though not as severely as viol players, since the organist can omit the bass line at the page turn and let the continuo viol player carry the load for a couple of beats). In some cases I'll produce a single score for singers and organist, and in others, I'll produce a kindergarten-sized score for the singers (joke), and a part for the organist that's got reduced-size staves above and decently-planned page turns. I often wonder how much work linked parts would save me, but I strongly doubt they'd save me that much work, as I'd still end up needing to create 2-4 different scores for different purposes. It's a good thing I like doing this, though the one disadvantage is that I have the frustration in early rehearsals that I know the music as a whole better than anyone else (even if I can't yet play my own part 100% reliably)! -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
