Interesting keyboard notation

[John Ruggero]

Because one player plays all the parts, the notation of solo keyboard music allows for creative solutions that can sometimes break conventional rules. I come upon these quite often and thought that it might be interesting to post them in this thread as they come up.

The first one are these half notes in 6/8 at the end of Chopin's Etude op. 10 no. 7, which are so much better than tied notes since there is no danger that it could be confused with a change to 3/4 accentuation, as it might in an instrumental part.

Half notes 1.jpeg (82.9 KiB) Viewed 2095 times

Sometimes keyboard players have to read between the lines notationally. Earlier half notes in the same piece simplify what would otherwise have been a very ugly tied notation, but this is an approximate notation for a note that holds for 5, not 4 eighth notes. (Measure 2 in the following example.) That it is intended to hold to the end of the measure is born out by the measure before it.

Half notes 2.jpeg (57.03 KiB) Viewed 2095 times

[JJP]

The first one are these half notes in 6/8 at the end of Chopin's Etude op. 10 no. 7, which are so much better than tied notes since there is no danger that it could be confused with a change to 3/4 accentuation, as it might in an instrumental part.

I love this example. It reminds me George Orwell's sixth rule for writing which I often have in mind in such notational situations, "Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous."

[John Ruggero]

"Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous."

Here's the barbaric version (Reinecke) :

Half notes 3.jpeg (90.29 KiB) Viewed 2082 times

And the half barbaric version in the first German edition:

Half notes 4.jpeg (87.49 KiB) Viewed 2082 times

All the first editions missed the quarter rest and added dots to the first half note. Would any pianist, much less one of the foremost keyboard innovators of all time, hold down that low fifth for a whole measure with the pedal sustaining and a rolled open position chord coming up the next measure?