Re: Notational conventions

[Hans Åberg]

> On 9 Nov 2016, at 00:35, Thomas Morley <address@hidden> wrote:

>>> Isn't it a good idea to do _always_ such studies?
>>> You can't even perform baroque-music adequat without them.
>>> Another example, I recall several printed editions of
>>> Flamenco-Alegrias in 3/4, but following exactly the 3/4 would come out
>>> completely wrong. It's often easier to get an raw glance, though.
>>> 
>>> Reading a score is not (and never was) enough to get an impression how
>>> the music _should_ sound or to perform it.
>>> 
>>> So I ask myself, why make it even more difficult for the reader with
>>> impossible things?
>> 
>> But for whom do you notate? Flamenco music does not notate the correct time 
>> signature. If you would toss skilled Western musicians a score, how would 
>> you notate it? Getting them to study Flamenco music and its notational 
>> traditions would be very costly.
>> 
> 
> Isn't _every_ written notation an approximation? Baroque often notates
> only a skeleton and the musician performing it has to fill in,
> ofcourse needing the knowledge howto. (Only one example, a plethora of
> others existing....)

Indeed, mostly one only writes what is needed for a performance, subject to 
musical interpretation. J.S. Bach was criticised in his times for writing down 
the ornaments, as in those days there was the view the musician should supply 
it, but it makes his music very performable to us in our times. Modern sheet 
music of Baroque music usually use modern notation and is edited, which may 
make it hard to know what the original actually was, but only experts on 
Baroque music can use the originals. GHB (Great Highland Bagpipe) does not 
write out the mixolydian key signature, as that what it is always going to be. 
But if notating for a musician not used to that convention, it might be good to 
write it out.

> And I _am_ a western musician, who learned Flamenco.
> I looked for and found a good teacher and yes, this costs money.

So then you might find a way to notate it, if you so would like, so that other 
western musicians do not need to make that roundabout. I do not recall the 
details, but if the actual note lengths would be written down, I think one 
would end up with irregular meters, as in Balkan music, and LilyPond can handle 
that.