A friend of a friend, who was a trained musician, once amazed me - I played
a tune, she (after checking one note if I remember) had to write the dots
out, which she did perfectly, before she played it. I was very impressed
but confused as it's completely the opposite of the way I work. She was a
violinist (not piper, definitely not fiddler) by the way
[Probably my first contribution for years]
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "colin" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 4:48 PM
Subject: [NSP] Re: From notation to music
Interesting thread.
As one who plays by getting the dots to sound like the tune I have heard,
some of the comments remind me of something in my own family which may
clarify some of the problems.
Both my mother and her aunt were excellent pianists.
The aunt, in particular, having achieved many certificates for her
playing.
It was interesting, however, to find that she couldn't carry a tune for
toffee.
Without the dots, she couldn't really play anything at all.
With the dots, anything you liked - and as written.
My mum could do both but preferred to play by ear which she could do with
quite complex tunes.
You can guess who was the most popular at parties :-)
Most of us, I'm sure, do the latter.
Then again, the "Chinese whisper" syndrome plays a part in tunes changing
over the years when transmitted aurally.
Is that a good or a bad thing?
Of course, it may be good to have an "original" transcript for historical
purposes but, then again, how many traditional tunes have that?
As I said, an interesting thread this.
Colin Hill
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gibbons, John" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 4:25 PM
Subject: [NSP] Re: From notation to music
Matt has said:
Any system of notation relies on a culture which knows how that
particular music is played, just as any written language relies on
people knowing how to pronounce it (greiss / grace etc.). The
problems
Anthony highlights are well known - use dots if you know how the
music
sounds, otherwise they are a hindrance.
The trouble with tunebooks in simplified notation - eg jigs in straight
quavers, or notating rants and reels identically, is that people from
different cultural backgrounds, or even nearer/further from the Border,
will have very different ideas as to how to play the tunes.
Ideally the best way of understanding 'how a tune really goes' is to
listen to a good traditional performance.
This is why recordings from traditional sources are so important, and
contact with live traditional performers even more so.
But some literalist note-players - particularly if they are classically
trained, and/or far from Northumberland - tend to believe that if a jig
is notated in straight quavers, it 'should' sound in equal straight
quavers; or if a hornpipe is notated in dotted quavers and semiquavers,
the dotted quavers 'should' take 3 times as long as the semi's. The
only way to explain these aspects of style to someone who takes
notation literally is probably if the NPS or someone publish a style
guide with examples.
Breathnach and others have done this for Irish music - it was
Breathnach's little book and CRE volumes 1 and 2 that taught me what I
should listen for.
Stuart Hardy has started a similar job for Northumbrian music with his
book on jigs - but the job isn't finished yet.
Rants, reels and hornpipes, anyone?
John
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [[1]mailto:[email protected]]
On Behalf Of Matt Seattle
Sent: 04 November 2009 11:24
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: [NSP] Re: schei greiss
"Notereader makes Hornpipes sound fairly good in 21/16, with
dotted
and
undotted quavers alternating."
Do you mean 20/16, John?
Any system of notation relies on a culture which knows how that
particular music is played, just as any written language relies on
people knowing how to pronounce it (greiss / grace etc.). The
problems
Anthony highlights are well known - use dots if you know how the
music
sounds, otherwise they are a hindrance.
Ancedote, half-remembered: an arranger scored out a trumpet part for
Miles Davis with a serious attempt at imitating what he understood
of
the nuanced rubato of Miles' phrasing - Miles said, I can't read
this,
man, write it straight, I'll phrase it.
--
To get on or off this list see list information at
[2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
--
References
1. mailto:[email protected]
2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 8.5.423 / Virus Database: 270.14.47/2478 - Release Date: 11/03/09
07:36:00
