Re: A must-see for anybody on this list

[David Kastrup]

Janek Warchoł <address@hidden> writes:

> On Sun, Feb 10, 2013 at 12:18 PM, Urs Liska <address@hidden> wrote:
>> "Music Engraving on Metal Plates":
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=345o3Wu95Qo
>
> That's awesome!
> However, despite the fact that this man is truly skilled, there are
> some imperfections.  For example http://youtu.be/345o3Wu95Qo?t=2m23s -
> the eight rests appear to be a bit too low.  Also notice that there's
> too much space between first two letters in "Andantino"
> (http://youtu.be/345o3Wu95Qo?t=6m2s).
> I'm not saying this to deprecate his work!  I just mean that we
> (LilyPond) can do *even better* than hand-engraving :)

Uh, he was giving a demo if I understood correctly.  At any rate, if you
say "the eight rests appear to be a bit too low", you are not
criticizing his craft but his design choices, since his craft would be
at issue if _some_ rests appeared too low.  LilyPond can do no better
than reflecting _our_ design choices.

The advantage LilyPond has over the hand engraver is that it does not
need to say "I don't make mistakes".  The hand engraver puts down the
staff lines, and short of throwing the plate(s) away and starting over,
the layout has to fit those lines, and the page breaks have to match
those bars in eternity.  And "give me that transposed for Bb" is an
inexpensive option, as well as "can you play that for me?".

Like with CNC-milling of violins, or the tuning of organs, the advantage
of the craftsman is not being consistently more precise than a machine,
but of being able to focus precision and perceived precision on those
aspects where they really count for human observers.

I found it somewhat sobering to see him cutting ledger lines and slurs
freehand without ruler, premade stencils or other aids.

Reminded me of a talk of Hermann Zapf well in his eighties, constant
tremor in his hands, talking about the design of New Palatino.  And then
he takes a piece of chalk and draws some swift strokes with his shaky
hands with the broadside of the chalk on the blackboard, and the shapes
are perfectly curved and aimed and smooth and balanced and a total
likeness to the letters and shapes he is discussing.

-- 
David Kastrup