NOTATIO

One of Arnstein's most interesting ideas was the "whole measure rest". For him, there was no such animal as the whole-rest, corresponding to the whole note. What everyone else called the "whole rest", he called the "whole measure rest". The "whole measure rest"...

I don't think players have too much trouble distinguishing a dotted rest from an undotted rest any more an they do a dotted note from an undotted one. If there is consistency in the use of rests, it will be clear that all whole beat rests will be a dotted rest, or not, depending which system is cho...

In regard to Fred G. Unn's post above, I corrected my post to read "the first measure of X1."

Peter, if (edit-the first measure of) X1 is now the preferred method, I think it unfortunate and a retrogression that it has nothing to do with the demise of hand copying. I wonder if Boosey now uses see half rests in 3/4 and 6/4? The point of both the "Brahms" and Arnstein systems was to ...

Peter, as you know, the quarter rest to the front and not to the rear is the traditional one seen at "Brahms" in the example. The logic is clear: the more natural rhythm is quarter-eighth, not the syncopated eighth-quarter: see Y1 and Y2. The quarter rest is thus always placed on a downbea...

This one amazing page of music inspires a number of comments: 1. Apropos of another thread, the treble clefs are to me very graceful and generally upright. One sees that, being hand engraving, they are tilted at slightly different angles, as mentioned by Knut. The clefs for the cues are in a somewha...

I was forced to use an imported graphic for this one, unfortunately. What do you think? Are the fermatas too far from the notes? I am on uncertain ground with this "new" symbol.

Knut, I never noticed this when the pattern was smaller, but at very high magnification, one can see that the arc is made up of series of smaller arcs, which gives a grey impression when stretched because there is now white between the arcs. It doesn't improve in printing, so it looks like I am goin...

OCTO, your concept is a new one to me, but I think that I understand it intuitively. Do you think that the level of density that you are talking about is actually more important for legibility than the size of the characters? I am thinking of situations in which one is forced to place more symbols o...