Klarinet Archive - Posting 000216.txt from 2009/10

From: Joseph Wakeling <joseph.wakeling@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Bernstein renotated (longish)
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:53:36 -0400

Heinemann, Stephen wrote:
> The Sibelius program now deals with the key signature problem elegantly: in
> setting up a score, you make a distinction between C major/A minor (no
> sharps or flats) versus open/atonal (no key signature); if you choose the
> latter, the transposed score simply transposes the notes without imposing a
> key signature. This may not have been the case in 2001. Back when I was in
> grad school and Finale was new, it wasn't set up for that. (A current
> student tells me that it still isn't, but I'm not sure that's accurate.)

Finale approaches the problem differently. It doesn't have open/atonal
key signature functionality, but allows a choice of tonal or chromatic
transposition. The effect is the same.

> Most of us elected not to use the program because its designers seemed not
> to have sufficient music-theoretical knowledge to conceive that a piece
> might not be notated as being in a particular key. (Not to mention that it
> goes against training and experience for a clarinetist to play an atonal
> piece with a "key signature" of two sharps.)

Lots of problems happen as a result, not of faults in the software, but
of composers and/or editors who don't bother to learn how to use it
properly (or who don't care). The tonal/chromatic transposition is a
source of frequent score errors ...

Who was the publisher of this new edition? I know that Chester came up
with a new edition, but I didn't think it had such faults as you describe.

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