Re: A note which is three measures long

[Simon Albrecht]

On 01.09.2017 14:50, David Kastrup wrote:
> Graham King <address@hidden> writes:
> > On Thu, 2017-08-31 at 16:06 +0200, Simon Albrecht wrote:
> > > On 31.08.2017 14:40, Bernhard Kleine wrote:
> > > > At the end of the Kyrie from Palestrina's Missa Brevis there is a note
> > > > three measure long. Is there any way to do that simply?
> > > Yes, there is. However, that is actually a \maxima (with a duration of
> > > 8*1)
> > or even more, with "perfection" at the level of prolation, tempus, modus
> > or (theoretically) maximodus.
> > <snip>
> > >   I always use Completion_heads_engraver and code the original
> > > note values, instead of hard-coding any ties, in mensural music.
> > +1
> Actually, in mensural music I wouldn't think of using
> Completion_heads_engraver.  It makes more sense removing the bar lines
> from the measures and just leave them between the staves as reminder,
> and not worry about splitting note lengths up.
>
> Mensural music tends to be a lot less beat-centric (and chord-centric)
> than later music.

I used to think that as well, and many people did, and do. For several 
reasons, I don’t anymore:
1) There’s the „notationskundliche“ (‘notationological’…) aspect, which 
I already summarized in this thread: Composers first wrote scores with 
barlines and ties on slates, then extracted parts (without barlines) and 
erased the score.
2) One can equally argue that, without barlines, performers have to 
think _more_, not less about the tactus, than if they were written.
3) IMO much 19th-century music is hardly different from much 
16th-century music in that the real intrigue is in the suspense created 
by stresses against the tactus; if the tactus is not present at all, 
this suspense gets lost.
4) It is an important virtue (for a large part of ‘classical’ 
repertoire) to make the music not sound as if encaged in equal cages. So 
performers need to learn making music /in spite of/ the bar lines anyway.

Best, Simon