The standard way is to use a major key signature for modes with a major third in them, and minor key signatures for modes with a minor third. So A lydian would use 3 sharps and have every D sharp manually altered with an accidental, as you thought.
The only exceptions I've seen are things like C fraygish (that's an F harmonic minor but starting on a C) that would use the F minor key signature and have the E altered manually. Christopher On 12/9/13, Robert Patterson <[email protected]> wrote: > So I am curious what this list thinks. You are writing a piece in A lydian > mode. Do you use four sharps in the key sig or do you use three sharps and > show the raised fourth as a chromatic alteration throughout the piece? > > I recently encountered this situation in some contemporary church music. I > am a horn player, so key sigs are not my strong suit, but showing 4 sharps > for a piece in A lydian drove me crazy (and this piece was lydian > throughout, so the problem manifested over and over in other keys as well.) > There was one solo where I played g-natural until the after the final > run-through before I noticed the wrong note and corrected it for the > performance. (The conductor was gonna let it go!) > > Maybe four sharps makes sense in some contexts (jazz? early music?) but it > felt really wrong in contemporary church music, esp. consider the minimal > rehearsal time such music gets. > > Yikes I just looked at Elaine Gould, and she allows any arbitrary key > signature. I hope I never have to face that, and in any case would end up > penciling every one of them in. > _______________________________________________ > Finale mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale > > > _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
