NOTATIO

I never used Sonata for anything more than very simple copy work, because the character set is too limited. I bought it from Adobe when it was introduced in 1986, and used it in Finale. Within a few years a friend turned me on to Susato, which I found nearly as beautiful, and compatible with Finale’...

Yes, it’s deliberately heavy, as are the line weights designed to go with it. I would not have expected this to be better, but now having seen the results I must say it is a huge improvement in legibility! Especially at small size, and/or on screen, the latter becoming increasingly important through...

Interesting: cresc. and most other expression & technique text is also in that square font, but scherzando, largamente and rit. (between the 2 oboe staves) are set in a more usual italic, like the tempo marks.

I think Octo meant to suggest not a greater complexity of the page, just a larger sampling of symbols.

Much agreement from me. Opus dynamics are still my favorite so far, although I like the Sonata :piano better. Maestro has very good form but too much stroke contrast; Engraver is clunky; the heavy strokes in Vienna are rather stiff (good for Second Viennese School, perhaps). November is clearly outl...

jrethorst wrote:there's never been a music font as nice as Sonata

You are the first person (after me) I’ve heard praise Sonata this way! I agree, the difference in professionalism of glyph design has always been quite noticeable to me.

Quick thought: What’s the name of your font? Could it possibly be showing up at a different place in Finale’s list?

I quite agree with Knut. Another special use of periods in German is for ordinal numbers: 1 = one; 1. = First.

Re Schumann: < > is sometimes called a “long accent”, i.e. a slower and gentler attack with the same force in context as a regular (sharper) accent. I think this particular case can actually be executed on piano because the chord is preceded by a 16th-note repetition. The expression of the marking e...

I gently but firmly disagree with Gould about tying tremolos. I copied music for a composer who insisted on Bartók-style dashed ties (which of course I had to fake using dashed slurs), and IMO it makes no difference. If you want an accent on the next note, write one, otherwise we won’t play one. As ...