I believe he difference there is that all the notes under the big fermata
are done by one player or singer, while the accompanist or conductor waits
- not dictated by a conductor of a larger group, whose conducting of
multiple fermatas will confuse the players who have only one in the part.

Write the busiest part the best way you can to indicate how you want it
performed, either with "rit" "ten"s, fermata signs or longer rhythms, then
notate everyone else's part with the same rhythms and signs, either with
rests or tied notes.  Problem solved.

Raymond Horton
Bass Trombonist, Louisville Orchestra
Minister of Music, Edwardsville (IN) UMC
Composer, Arranger
VISIT US AT rayhortonmusic.com


On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 10:48 PM, Aaron Sherber <[email protected]> wrote:

> On 2/10/2012 12:20 PM, John Howell wrote:
> > And unless you know that you are writing for
> > musicians who are familiar with new notational
> > conventions, I would urge you NOT to invent new
> > signs, or new meanings for old and understood
> > sings, which then have to be explained in text.
> > If I came across Aaron's wide fermata I would
> > have no idea at all how to interpret it, but I
> > would NOT interpret it as he means it.
>
> Hmm. I take your point, John, but I'm quite sure that I'm not inventing
> this notation and that I've seen it in other scores. I want to say it
> was in vocal music, where the voice has a few melismatic notes over a
> held note in the accompaniment. That would be a situation very similar
> to the one I have, except that the vocal notes weren't dictated.
>
> Aaron.
> _______________________________________________
> Finale mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
>
_______________________________________________
Finale mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale

Reply via email to