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Messages - Bespinben

#61
Quote from: Latios212 on April 03, 2018, 07:38:55 PMI went back and gave this one some more thought to try and find justification for my previous self writing those in. It does sound fine without the A, but I think I did prefer the slightly "bulkier" texture because otherwise the middle of the measure emphasizes B a bit too much for my liking... I'll think about it a bit more.

Just want to chime in on this real quick, since this is a subject that interests me. I think there's a number of advantages to the addition of A into these chords, such as it emphasizing the quartal quality of the chord's upper structure, as well as anchoring the progression on the 5th scale degree of the key as the progression drifts away from the key. But I think what interests me most is how this A naturally comes to one's ears, despite it not being explicitly audible in the OST. My hypothesis is that perhaps there's something missing texturally between the punchiness of spiccatto strings and the inevitable pedal-heavy execution on piano, and that the extra A helps to fill in that gap with its distinct bulkiness.
#62
Just saw your newest edit; that's much better now! I'll accept this if there are no objections otherwise... Latios?
#63
Correct me if I'm misunderstanding, but it seems all that was done (at least as far as what I was concerned with) was that you changed the page size to 85% (formally 91%) and changed the left margin to 0.75" (formally 1"). While this does improve the aesthetic of the layout somewhat, it doesn't fix any of the major issues that my recommendations were aimed at -- namely, whitespace optimization and page turns. While I understand that preparing a layout around page turns is a non-issue for a lot of people (as I know many NSM'ers either use tablets or print single-sided), there's still tons of unused whitespace in your current edition at the bottom of each page, which is just not good graphic design. Aim for a predictable layout with ample whitespace that allows your music to breath:

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#64
Quote from: PlayfulPiano on April 02, 2018, 07:38:58 PM1. Submission formatting requires con pedale if the pedal is being used.
This is false. Like D3ath said, sometimes, the best way to notate pedal it is to not do it at all. If necessary, I personally like to use implicit means of notating pedal usage. Laissez vibrer, slurs, and (my favorite) sustained voices in a 2nd layer a la Rachmaninoff are all viable tools to communicate pedal usage implicitly.
#65
I'm very pleased with how you've continued to improve and evolve this arrangement towards your own vision. The most I can offer at this point is some pedantry regarding page layout. If we use 6.5mm staff size (as per Elaine Gould's recommendations), symmetrical margins (with sides slightly larger to offset the ungainly width of the aspect ratio of 8.5 x 11 paper), and a general allotment of 5 measures per system (with some judicious give-and-take to account for page turns), we get a much more functional print-ready layout:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ar98o8lrif1hqzr/Lost%20in%20Thoughts%20All%20Alone%20%28edit%29.musx?dl=0

I butchered your slurs in the process unfortunately, but shouldn't take too long I hope to redraw them :)
#66
Arrangement looks fine to me. However, I think the layout could be much better optimized. Instead of squishing as many systems as possible onto every single page (which has resulted in huge amounts of unused whitespace on page 3), spread it out evenly over the 3 pages you're using. In fact, if you did 5 systems on page 1, you could fit 6 systems on pages 2 and 3 each, creating a nicely balanced and evenly filled layout.
#68
This is how a MIDI synthesizer plays a melody:
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This is how a human plays a melody:
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If you want the slightly detached feeling that you hear in the original, the accurate *and* human way of writing that would be by using a chord roll marking, like so:
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#69
Not only can any number of 8ths/quavers be beamed together in 3/4 (Elaine Gould, Behind Bars, pg. 153), it is an expected engraving practice to beam all three beats together, such as in the first 8 bars of Detention Center:

"The rule is: group together as many notes as make one beat EXCEPT .... if a bar of 3/4 ... consists entirely of quavers, then all the notes should be grouped together".
(The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, Rudiments and Theory of Music, https://musescore.org/en/node/9924)

Finale's default setting to separately beam consecutive quavers/8ths in 3/4 into individual beats really is lamentable, as that should really only be done if the utmost clarity is required, or to indicate a change of pitch pattern (Elaine Gould, Behind Bars, pg. 154).

Franz Liszt's Liebestraum uses a 6/4 meter (essentially a double 3/4), and beams each 3/4 subgroup in groups of 6 quavers/8ths. Just as it would be absurd to to assume that the contours of the right hand arpeggios in the beginning of Liebestraum imply a compound sub-division, it is equally absurd to assume that the contours of the right hard arpeggios in the beginning of "Detention Center" imply a 6/8 meter.
#70
Just a few of the gems I've gathered during my inactivity, hehe.

Technically, in a two-page spread where the first page of written music is on the left-hand page (the verso), that would be page 2, and the second page of written music (the recto) would be page 3. This is due to printing/publishing tradition to always have the right-hand page be odd-numbered, and also assumes a cover page (which would be page 1). Frankly, I haven't figured out how to make these principles fit with existing NSM standards, so you can ignore the bit about changing the page number's position. I'm only speaking from a position of interest, not authority, so please do take what I say with several cups of salt.

I thought the ending was dispensable because what we gain from deleting it (a perfect measure count for a consistent cast-off) far outweighs its compositional value (minimal, as its just a tonic chord that most people could improvise). As for the Dal Segno, what you've just proposed would be in line with what I've observed of recent NSM sheets, so do that. My guess is that that approach seems to be "softer" in terms of what it says about the original composition, as opposed to repeat bars, so that's why it may have gained traction in the last year. Again, just stating an observation, not making an authoritative claim.

As for stave levels between facing pages, it's mostly an art of taste, but there are some practical and aesthetic considerations you can make. Ideally, one should aim to "match the levels of top and bottom staves across facing pages, regardless of whether the pages have the same number of staves" (Gould, Behind Bars, pg. 487), and have consistent top and bottom stave levels throughout a piece. It's granted that you will need to lower the height of the top stave to allow space for headings on an opening page, however, so a good balance in this situation would be to have the top of a heading level with the top stave-line of the following pages. This however is not possible since we have a running header on each page (as now explicitly required by NSM standards since 2016), so for NSM pieces, I like to move the top stave a "system space" (sorry for the made-up terminology) from the running header, so as to make the layout vertically consistent in terms of whitespace. Here's a quick mock-up of the idea:
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#71
Use 0.75" margins on all sides (see MOLA Guidelines, page 5).

Use a minimum of at least 6mm staff size for piano music, and no more than 7.4 mm (see Elaine Gould's Behind Bars, page 483). This disqualifies Firearrow's 1-page layout as it requires approximately 5.7mm staff size (80% of 7.2mm) in order to fit without collisions. A 7mm staff size would be ideal for this piece.

Cast-off the music as a two-page spread: 3 systems on verso, and 4 systems on recto. This would require removing the coda you wrote in. Ample white-space has both an aesthetic and functional purpose, so be sure to always prepare your scores with this principle in mind, which is, to ensure that the amount of music to be read per system for any instrument is consistent. This helps to ensure a similarly consistent speed of "travel" for the reader's eye.
#72
Off-Topic / Re: Official "I'm Away Topic"
January 29, 2018, 01:15:57 AM
heraldry often does depart from NSM in this way

see you on MET/MES my dude
#73
Just did some basic typesetting. Reset staff size to 6.5 millimeters to be in accordance with historical rastral sizes for solo piano music (6.0 to 7.4 are the limits, with 6.5 to 7.0 being the norm). Did alot of "un-XML"-ing since there are usually a lot of artifacts it generates. Standard printing margins are 0.5, with sides allowable up 0.75 -- this I set to 0.625 to offset the ungainly width of the US Letter paper while still giving a decent amount of horizontal width to each system of music. Gave a small 0.05" increase in height in the grand staff (some more and some less depending on whitespace) to give more breathing room for articulations and dynamics -- always avoid collisions like the plague. Finally, I condensed your self-made ending to 1 measure by starting a volta-style repeat mid-measure -- this eliminated the problem of having to have either 1 system of 4 measures (too tight) versus 2 systems of 2 measures (too wide).

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Thus sayeth the Gould
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(Also, fyi, Yoshihiro Maeda was only in the credits for Explorers of Sky, so since Beach Cave was already composed for Time/Darkness 2 years prior to Sky, I removed his name from the composer credits)
#74
Music / Re: The Best of SiIvaGunner
October 09, 2017, 02:58:22 AM
#75
Well it's either this or "Page Intentionally Blank for the Facilitation of Page Turns" ((In bold, centered vertically and horizontally, & 16-20pt absolute size)). Pick your poison.
Or even better, ignore centuries of printing practices for the sake of "consistency", demand the removal of the cover page, and thereby tacitly admit NSM's engraving standards are shit.