Rests

i've heard mixed discussions on rests, so i was just wondering...do you guys (and gals) put full measures of rests in or not? im trying to make my scores look nice and neat, and honestly i think it looks better with them blank, but is that considered unprofessional? or is it just a preference thing?

Vince

Blank measures can give the impression that something is missing, for example that the composer forgot to write out a certain passage for one instrument. If you consistently never write rests in empty bars it isn't a huge problem because you'll quickly see the principle when you read the score, but I still think it's much less ambiguous if you write them all out.

There are of course some composers, like Lutoslawski, who didn't only leave empty measures blank, but even removed the staff lines whenever that instrument shouldn't play. (The following was the first thing that showed up on a google image search for Lutoslawski.)



Of course this form of notation also has to do with Lutoslawski's aleatoric techniques, but it would work as well in different music (and Lutoslawski also used it in pieces that were pretty much without aleatoric elements.) This form of notation has the advantage of making it very quick to see which instruments are playing and when they set in, which is especially important if it's a form of music that strongly relies on cues from the conductor (which a great part of Lutoslawski's music does).

Stravinsky used to omit whole staves wherever they don't play as well (I didn't know that Lutoslawski did the same thing - in fact, I haven't looked at any of his scores, which I should... >_> )

But in any case, rests shouldn't be omitted. You shouldn't worry too much about the appearance of your score (unless you want to achieve that in its own end), as long as it's as clear and clean as possible and communicates what you want to hear as effectively as possible.

Omitting rests may send across the message that you are trying to be overtly modern or avante-garde.

Or lazy

Originally Posted by Dan Gilbert

Omitting rests may send across the message that you are trying to be overtly modern or avante-garde.

This is my take on it too - as if you're saying, "watch me be different!"

thanks for the advice folks! im glad to get your opinions....now thenn

*pushes teh fill in empty bars with rests button*

If there's no reason to do it, then just stick with the norm ....like you already have .

Obviously you are not using a computer notation programme that just puts the rest in.

That's what I first thought too, until I read "*pushes teh fill in empty bars with rests button*"