Recommended books

[mosteo]

Hello everybody,

I'm an aficionado engraver (using mostly lilypond/musescore nowadays). I recently discovered this forum and I'm amazed at the level of knowledge displayed by the contributors, I'm going over many old threads.

Until now I have finished my scores by instinct, using the solfège/piano I was taught when a child and my own experiences as a 30-year long choir member, but seeing you discussing the finer details of engraving I realized that I have almost no formal or systematic knowledge to fall back onto for most situations that deviate from the usual.

So, TLDR, is there any books on music engraving you would recommend? Not about some program or computer mastering, but about styles, customs, etc, for classical and antique choir/keyboard music.

Thanks!

[John Ruggero]

Welcome, mosteo. I hope that you will be a frequent contributor.

The reference books that I use:

The Art of Music Engraving and Processing by Ted Ross
Behind Bars by Elaine Gould

But far more important to me are my years as a practical musician, my years of apprenticeship as a hand copyist with Arnold Arnstein, my study of manuscripts and first editions, and what I have learned on this forum and others.

[OCTO]

Agree with John.

The most important is to have interest in notation! But decades to master it....

Books: Gould, for starters.

Also, to study different editions of same composition is very helpful. IMSLP can offer that possibility.

[John Ruggero]

The creation of IMSLP and the other websites that have made important historical music materials available to all, is one of the most important events that has ever occurred for the betterment of music.

[Knut]

Welcome, mosteo!

I wholeheartedly agree with John and OCTO. Good reference texts like Gould or Stone can go a long way, but the study and playing of scores, both good and bad, and accumulation of historical and more general musical knowledge is what really will elevate the quality of your engravings.

Score study will offer you the rules, and more importantly, the exceptions in a practical and historical context that most books will never be able to. As mentioned, comparing different engravings of the same piece will help you develop your critical faculties and sense of style and aesthetics. IMSLP is certainly an invaluable source for this, but nothing beats studying the professionally printed page.

[Christof Schardt]

In case you were german speaking I would also recommend this:

Herbert Chlapik: Die Praxis des Notengraphikers: Wie entstehen unsere Noten?
https://www.amazon.de/Die-Praxis-Noteng ... 3900035962

Not as comprising and detailed as Gould but a rather compact and well written introduction.

[mosteo]

Thank you everybody for the warm welcome and recommendations. After reading some of your old threads I see that indeed there's much more to bring into a score than a set of mechanical rules. The Composers vs Engravers threads are fascinating! After so many years of being an (amateur) musician I feel humbled by the collective knowledge displayed here.

I'll try to track down a copy of Gould for starters and start to pay more attention to the scores I use. It's somewhat sad that usually the engravings that stick out are the bad ones; I guess part of the art is to make it a vehicle for the music as frictionless as possible.

Christof, unfortunately I'm not German speaking but thanks nonetheless.

[Fred G. Unn]

I don't have any affiliation with them, but NPC Imaging is a good source of books on notation:
http://www.npcimaging.com/

They even have Gould cheaper than Amazon, and have Ross available on CD-ROM. Copies of Ross come up on eBay from time to time so you might want to save a search for it there to get an email notification when one is available. The Gardner Read and Kurt Stone books are pretty good too, after you get Gould and Ross.

[John Ruggero]

Thanks for your kind words about Composers vs Engravers, mosteo!