Jump to content

notation issue - microtonal glisses in time/space notation


920bpm

Recommended Posts

OK, I wish my scanner was working so I could scan what I've written, because it would be so much easier to explain, but it isn't. So in this piece I'm writing the flute and trumpet both play a G# in unison (the flute also singing G# while playing it), then the trumpet glisses down a quarter tone (so its inbetween G and G#, is that called G half sharp?) while the singing flute part goes up a quartter tone. The problem is since its in time/space notation and each note is followed by a horizontal line to indicate its duraton, I can't indicate a gliss between two notes that have the same letter, as they do in the trumpet part. I can't change the spelling of teh note to Ab either, because then the flute part would have the same problem. Does this make sense? I could spell the flute and trumpet notes differently, but that looks really messy when they're supposed to be the same note. What I've done so far is written "gliss" above the staff with a dotted line to show duration of the gliss (like an 8va line, kind of). Is there a better way?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have to admit, I don't quite understand the problem. Why is it a problem if you have to have a glissando line and still want horizontal lines for note durations? A glissando line obviously already indicates that you want the note to be played in that time, so there's no need for an additional "duration line" there, but only at the end of the note, if you want the final note to be held longer.

Would this be a viable solution?

2cpvlt5.png

Or, for more versatility, you may want to split up the flute part and add an extra "sung" staff:

ncj1l.png

If you want the ending note of the gliss not to be held, write it as a grace note:

ncft4j.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alright, I have a related question, but more about layout, I'm going to have a seperate staff above the flute staff for the sung pitches (I'm thinking it will be a smaller size, like an ossia staff size?). As far as layout conventions go, because this will be the top staff on the page, does it need to be the same distance from the top of the page as the flute staff was on other pages? In other words, every page of the score needs to have a consistent distance from the top of the page (except page 1) regardless of how many staves are on it, am I correct? Hope this makes sense...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe there are some publishing guidelines about this - but all I can say from my knowledge of other scores is: More or less. Generally, in scores where the number of staves changes from page to page, the distances of the top staff to the top of the page and from the lowest staff to the bottom of the page will vary slightly, but not too much, if possible. So yes, if you add a sung staff on one page and not on the others, put it approximately where your flute staff is on the other pages, but feel free to move it around slightly to give the whole page somewhat balanced proportions. (I.e. if having the sung staff at the same position as the flute staff otherwise resulted in a very large or very small space on the bottom of the page, move it around a bit to balance it out.)

Many publishers also change the distances -between- the staves from page to page frequently, to accomodate for this. (Don't go over the top with this though.)

It's all much more an aesthetic choice than a musical question, really, and will have little influence on how the performers will read your score. So, as long as you keep it all clearly and easily readable, simply do what -looks- right to you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...