Re: Music Notation

[Max Stern 310-524-6152 <lms...>]

Matthew Fields writes:

 > in conservatory settings, btw, singers are expected to read the
 > notes, the words, and all the other parameters to music they've
 > never heard or seen before, all at once.  Conductors and composers
 > are expected to absorb all this for all the singers in the choir,
 > plus all the notes that each player in the orchestra plays.  When
 > necessity dictates, each of the above musicians is already expected
 > to adapt to special-purpose notations.

And then he asserts:

 > That's just a small taste of part of why there's such a thing as
 > music school.

Matthew probably didn't intend it this way, but this assertion sounds
to me like an example of the excesses of academicism.  I would
translate the assertion thus:  "Music schools exist to train their
students and faculty to do the kind of things that are required only
in music schools."

Of course, what Matthew describes is called a "read-through", and is
less impractical than his assertion implies.  Professional studio
musicians, for example, often have to perform almost literally at
sight.  This is one of the chief distinctions between the life of a
studio musician and that of -- for example -- a symphony orchestra
member.

Just my two semi-demiquavers.

 |\/|  /_\  \/
 |  | /   \ /\                      Max(dot)Stern (at) 
TorreyPinesCA(dot)ncr(dot)com

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