crowded voices

[Vaughan]

Although I understand the desire to see the middle of the measure, I also still prefer Octo 2, as it seems less cluttered and the clarity of the notation doesn't suffer. I also wonder why this isn't just as clear as the pseudo Kodaly example:

pseudo kodaly.pdf

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[John Ruggero]

Kodaly's real moving part is a little closer to the drone, and very soon he writes:

Pseudo-Kodaly2.jpg (32.99 KiB) Viewed 12280 times

which would not be as nice on one staff, and he probably wanted to be consistent.

One has to see the whole passage, which includes other textures against a droning open string, to see that it is less hectic on two bass clef staves.

[Vaughan]

Good point, John. The crossing voices could be looked upon as a kind of deal-breaker for notating the passage on one staff, and I concur with the desire for notational consistency.

[Peter West]

Life is too short! The original was fine!!!!

[John Ruggero]

You are probably right, Peter, but I think that it is high time that someone write a piece for solo violin that uses 4 treble (or whatever) staves, one for each string; maybe something like the quartet you are working on. And then you should engrave it!

[David Ward]

That is a unique opportunity, David, please do inquire about the Kodaly notation.

I had the chance to converse at length with Rohan about a wide range of notational and other musical matters, both after the concert and over the next morning's porridge. He did not think that Kodály's use of two staves in the cello part when both were comfortably in the bass clef was 'at all necessary', but his use of two staves was indeed necessary when it allowed for the simultaneous use of two different clefs for the cello in passages which might otherwise require a preposterous number of ledger lines.

[John Ruggero]

Thanks so much for asking him about that, David.

I am afraid that I must respectfully dispute his opinion. Of course it was not impossible to use one staff for those places with two bass clef staves, but Kodaly's notation is so much clearer as he has written it. See pages 6, 8 (which actually would have been a mess because the melody moves into the treble range in the middle of the passage) 10-11, where the meaning is made more apparent. And it is clear that Kodaly did this where he felt it was absolutely necessary, because it is a somewhat rare occurrence in the piece.

Rachmaninoff could have written the last two pages of the C# minor Prelude on two staves instead of four, but I am glad that he didn't!

[David Ward]

Thanks so much for asking him about that, David.

I am afraid that I must respectfully dispute his opinion … …

One should perhaps remember that this Kodály piece is so much in Rohan's memory that nowadays he very rarely refers to the written score.

Unfortunately, I didn't get round to asking him about the notation in Berio's Sequenza XIV for solo cello, which was written for him, and which uses all sorts of special effects and special notation on multiple staves. I have seen the score, but don't remember it clearly, although I seem to recall that it looked like nothing else.

I hope to have the opportunity to have further discussions with him in the not too distant future.