I have an extensive library of music from many different publishers. I can’t find any consensus over whether or not to put parentheses on cautionary accidentals: some do, some don’t.
As a player (pianist who has to sight-read a lot, accompanying opera), I prefer not to see the parentheses, for reasons others have already given. When I’m sight-reading at speed I often don’t notice if a given accidental is a necessary or a cautionary one: I see a D-flat, play a D-flat and move on. As a conductor I’ve never had problems with players stumbling over cautionary accidentals, with or without parentheses, but I’ve often had players make mistakes through the lack of cautionary accidentals at appropriate places. > On 29 Nov 2014, at 06:32, Craig Parmerlee <[email protected]> wrote: > > On 11/28/2014 10:37 PM, Christopher Smith wrote: >> Most major publishers these days do not parenthesise courtesy accidentals >> either. > > Really? > > That surely isn't my experience. I don't recall seeing any recently > published music from a respected publishing house that does it that way. > > I find that a non-parenthesized unnecessary accidental causes more > errors than it avoids. If the player's eyesight isn't perfect or the > player is otherwise distracted, the presence of "something" tells the > player that it sure isn't what the key signature indicates. The player > may have to make a quick guess as to what the accidental most likely is > -- and of course will be wrong 100% of the time because it wasn't a > necessary marking. I cuss the engraver every time they do that to me. > > With courtesy accidentals, either parenthesize them or leave them out. > Anything else is a hostile act, IMHO. It is hard enough to sight-read > accidentals accurately without the engraver placing land mines in the way. > _______________________________________________ > Finale mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale > > To unsubscribe from finale send a message to: > [email protected] _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] https://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale To unsubscribe from finale send a message to: [email protected]
