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Topic: Just bought this fabulous book! (Read 11245 times) previous topic - next topic

Just bought this fabulous book!

Dear Eric and Newsgroup,

Just wanted to mention that I just purchased a really useful book called "Essential Dictionary of Music Notation", by Tom Gerou and Linda Lusk, its published by Alfred, ISBN 0-88284-730-9, 1996
It was $11.95 Aus (~$8US?)
It includes answers to many of our burning questions and issues, eg what instruments to score for concert band, stage band, orchestra, (and general order) , STEM LENGTH, articulations (like tenuto, sforzando/ato, staccatissimo), arpeggios, etc.
Anyone designing fonts (or notation programs :-) could well do with a look at this book. At the very least it will help us in defining a common terminology that is consistent at least with Alfreds Publishing (one of the larger music publishers in the world).

Regards,

Andrew

PS: I'll also post this on the newsgroup.
PPS: I am not an employee of Alfred's!

Re: Just bought this fabulous book!

Reply #1 –
Isn't Alfred the guy who cleans the BAT-CAVE?
John

Re: Just bought this fabulous book!

Reply #2 –
Perhaps this book will convince the NWC designers that
a beam connecting an 8th note to a 16th note should not
have a 16th-note beam half the length of the full beam?

I've already had a pianist *AND* a composition instructor
criticize me (me!) for that notational "feature".
Seems like a no-brainer to change it.

- seb

Re: Just bought this fabulous book!

Reply #3 –
Steve (seb): The exact behaviour that you describe with note beams will be changed in version 1.50b. Look for it by the end of the month, 28-Feb-1998 or so.

Re: Just bought this fabulous book!

Reply #5 –
Andrew, do you know if some translation of this book exist ?
Eric, I dunno for 1.50b version but in 1.51a it seems that the beam is still too long on the 1-th note... And I ain't sure of the stem length. Looks sometimes very long though. But I have no idea on what it should be.

NWCly yours,
                    MAD

Re: Just bought this fabulous book!

Reply #6 –
What is a "1-th note" in your post? As for the book, I would recommend a book seller as a better source for the question, such as amazon.com. -> Eric

Re: Just bought this fabulous book!

Reply #7 –
As for the beam issue described above, the length of the smaller note's beam is exactly one notehead now, per standard notation conventions.

Re: Just bought this fabulous book!

Reply #8 –
1. Sorry for miscased keystroke. "1-th" was meant to be 16th. Released shift key too early. And beam's length is ok. Still wonder on stem's one.
2. Thanx for the amazon.com address. I quickly found the reference for "Essential Dictionary of Music Notation". It seems that only an english version exist, but I think it may be worth the price.

Dominique