On 11/4/2012 6:34 AM, John Howell wrote: [snip of discussion of fermatas and "railroad tracks", which John and I both agree should be in the same location in all parts regardless of rests] > But in the specific case you mention, I would > have to think about it very carefully before > deciding. One way to make it clear would be to > tie into a cutoff note, but I can picture > situations in which even that would be ambiguous. > But simply as a reminder about the cutoff, I > might be tempted to insert it in the parts that > do NOT continue playing. > > Of course musicianship SHOULD provide the answer, > but perhaps not for sightreading.
If an exact cutoff were desired by the composer, then either, as John said, tying to a cutoff note would be best, or adding an "articulation" to the final note such as a staccato dot should suffice. Of course, as John says, musicianship should provide the answer, and the leader of whatever group should be able to get his/her musicians to provide uniform cutoffs regardless of how those cutoffs are notated. But, speaking as a brass player, were I to see a breath mark at the end of a phrase just before a multi-measure rest I would immediately realize that the composer had no clue what he/she was doing and I would still have no clue what was intended, since a breath mark only indicates shortening the preceding note *if* there are notes following it. With a multi-measure rest in which to breathe, I would not automatically shorten the note preceding the breath mark. And that would be true whether it were a comma or a check-mark. And I can't think of any good brass players I know who would do it any differently than I do. -- David H. Bailey [email protected] _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
