[Gnu-music-discuss] Re: Tie issues...

[David Raleigh Arnold]

I can't thank you enough for *discussing* this.

*What if*, in the example Scott gave, there were more octaves from the
tied note? Reminders in parentheses for all of those unaltered are
needed during the tied note. If you consider that the accidental has to
be reestablished, you need another complete set of accidentals in all
the other parts to reestablish their status also! Otherwise, you do not.
That is what is wrong with making up rules according to "standard
practice". Sometimes standard practice doesn't cover the ground.

There are several problems with using music over 100 years old as
examples. I found an example of a repeated tied sharped note which was
naturalled in HVL. So what? The older rule was that accidentals only
applied to a single note, then later to immediately repeated notes, and
finally to the whole measure. It is therefore not knowable whether
Mendelssohn was writing reminders or just being unduly conservative.

Consider instead the rule. "Accidentals end at the end of the measure
in which they occur." Why exceptions? A tie causes the accidental to
occur in another measure. Can I put an accidental on a tied note if I
want? I have to if I am tying one note of a dim/aug prime. Should that
change anything in the rest of the measure?

Again, there was a time when accidentals behaved more like key
signatures, and operated on every octave, or in every part depending on
whose "authority" you trusted. That made it impossible to write a b and
a bes to occur together in any way. That just won't do any more. Because
it is possible to have two different pitches occuring at the same time
on the same line or space, it is a *fact* that in such an instance the
chromatics apply to different parts.

It makes more sense to use parentheses for the reminder rather than a
regular accidental. You will never have to fix it later. *More
importantly*, the unaltered octaves are marked with reminders by
default, aren't they? They should be. It's standard practice. :-)

.daveA