Clement A. Harris

“ In open score (when one part only is being written on a stave) , the stems of notes above the middle line should be turned down, the stems of those below the middle line should be turned up (see b, Fig. 18) . The object of this is to keep the stems within the stave and prevent their sprawling above or below. The ill-equipped writer betrays himself by nothing more often than by sprawling stems.
The stems in a group of notes are generally turned according to the direction of the first note, or the majority. ”

“ In the case of open score (a single part on one stave) , they are best placed on the side opposite the stem.
Time-dots, or those which prolong a note one half, if applied to a note in a space, should be in the same space as the note; if applied to a note on a line they should be placed in the space above, if the next note of the part is higher, and in the space below if it is lower. The importance of this usage is often overlooked. If it cannot be called a rule, it is high time it was made one! ”

“ Facility is well worthy of consideration, especially on the part of those who have much music to write. A little thought will often show how a character may be made in one stroke, which in any other way will take two or more, and that without any loss of clearness.
Thus a half note can be made in one stroke if begun at the point where the ring joins the stem; that is, at the top of the ring for upward stems, at the under part for downward stems. ”

“ As a rule, a natural should only be used where the sharp or flat to be cancelled would not have to be repeated were the inflection intended to continue.
Legibility.
52.—A common cause of illegibility in manuscript music is what may be called a spider-like sameness in the web. Stems and hooks—indeed sometimes stems and note-heads!—are much of the same thickness and blackness. Compare them in printed music, and it will be seen that a dozen, perhaps a score, of stems could be spun out of one hook. ”

“ But simple music can be made quite symmetrical, and in all music such beat-lines, actual or mental, are an invaluable check and guide.
Each note should be placed in the left-hand end of its space. This is for the simple reason that music, like words, is read from left to right and, roughly, space represents duration. Any other arrangement is misleading, as may be seen from old music, in which a note was often placed in the middle of its space. ”

“ But here, the repeated note occurring on a strong accent preceded by a weak one, is evidently intended not to be tied, but to receive an emphasis. (Similar exceptions may be found in “Every Valley.”)
In modern music, when all the notes of a measure are to be sung to the same syllable, and there is no likelihood of confusion, the slur is often dispensed with. This is especially the case in Mendelssohn's music. ”

“ A perhaps commoner fault is in not allowing sufficient space for the signature, and therefore cramping it. Each sharp or flat should be well to the right-hand of the preceding one, never over or under it.
(3) Sharps, flats, and naturals, like clefs, cover much more of the stave than the single line or space which they govern. Not nearly enough care is usually exercised to make the center of the sharp, or the loop of the flat, exactly correspond with this, as it should. ”

“ Hence care must be taken to write the treble clef on the second, and the bass clef on the fourth line of its stave. But it is still customary to use the C clef, especially in viola and trombone music, with both two lines above and two below, making the alto stave; and three below and one above, making the tenor stave. These staves are also used in old vocal music, and familiarity with them is absolutely necessary in all advanced theoretical examinations. The C clef, therefore, appears to move, being sometimes on the third and sometimes on the fourth line. ”

“ Five exceptions are common: (1) The stem of a grace note is almost invariably turned upwards, though according to Dr. Hullah it should be turned in the direction contrary to that of the stem of the principal note, for the sake of greater distinctness (see d, Fig. 18) . In “copy” for the printer grace-notes are best written in red ink. (2) In piano music when a single part, or row of notes, is to be divided between the hands, one playing one group and the other the next, the stems of the right-hand notes are turned up, and those of the left down (see Fig. 15, latter half of measure) . ”

“ The immense increase in the amount of music published, and its cheapness, seem rather to have increased than decreased this necessity, for they have vastly multiplied activity in the Art. If they have not intensified the necessity for music-writing, they have increased the number of those by whom the necessity is felt.
Intelligent knowledge of Notation is the more necessary inasmuch as music-writing is in only a comparatively few cases mere copying. ”

“ It will be seen that the lower eighth note rest in the first example belongs to the same part as the following sixteenth note rest, though by no means on a line with it.
19.—In modern piano music which is not of a strictly part-writing character, rests often represent the absence, not of a part or voice, but of the hand. If the notes, though representing as many parts as the piece can be supposed to possess, are all to be played by one hand, rests are employed to represent the absence of the other. ”

“ Very useful for other purposes where a small, narrow stave is required.
For piano and violin music, paper should be chosen the staves of which are wide apart, to allow of the large number of leger lines frequently required.
Scoring.
3.—The paper chosen, the first use of a pen will be in ruling the score-lines. A “score” technically is as many staves as are performed simultaneously: two in pianoforte music, three in organ music, four in an unaccompanied quartet, six in four-part vocal music with piano accompaniment, and so on. These staves have a line drawn down their left-hand edge. ”

“ A common fault is in not making them thick enough. Notes are sometimes “hooked” in accordance, not with the rhythm, but with the hand which is to play them (see d, Fig. 22) . This is necessitated by the usage with regard to stems in such cases [see “Stems,” par. 22, exception (2) ] .
Fig. 22.
35.—In vocal music notes should not have the same hook which are sung to a different syllable (see “Vocal Music,” par. 37) . Subject to these exceptions, notes must be grouped according to their rhythm.
Leger-lines. ”

“ As long as a work is in manuscript and copies are not offered for sale it enjoys the same protection, under the common law, as if properly entered for copyright. It is an infringement of copyright to copy, reprint, publish, or vend the whole or any portion of a copyright work for any purpose whatsoever. ”

“ It is a fault which one commits the moment watchfulness is relaxed, and entails much scratching out. Where the measures vary in length the ruling will most readily be done in light pencil with a T square, and afterwards inked. A single bar-line out of the perpendicular will spoil the appearance of a whole page. ”

“ The formation of a more rapid and individual hand does not come till later. So with musical phonography. The student, at whatever cost of time and patience, must first acquire accuracy and clearness. Not till these are gained must he think of rapidity and ease. ”

“ That way must be selected which represents its rhythm, its correct accentuation, to the eye. Simple forms of time, as distinct from Compound, contain but few pitfalls, and even an inexperienced writer is not likely to go far wrong.
9.—It may be as well to warn such an one, however, that it is not nowadays customary to dot an unaccented note or rest. The dot in this case would represent the succeeding accented beat, and not represent it nearly as significantly as does a tied note or separate rest; compare a and b, Fig. 5. ”

“ The stems in a single group of notes are as often as not of different lengths, according to the position of the notes and the direction taken by the hook. A common fault is to make them too short, especially when the four hooks of a sixty-fourth note have to be added. ”

“ Care must be taken when a page is ruled at a time not to draw the score-line through more than the necessary number of staves. Except in a full score there will generally be at least two, and, of course, very often more, scores to the page. ”

“ In this case the hooks not common to the whole group are invariably turned so as to lie within the group, and, subject to this, if the group contains more than one beat, so as to lie within the beat of which they form part.
Fig. 20.
31.—Previous to 1660, each eighth or shorter note had a separate hook or hooks. But at the time of the Restoration, John Playford substituted a connecting horizontal line for the separate hooks of two or more eighths belonging to the same division of the measure. The device was copied by the Dutch, French, and Germans. The Italians did not adopt it till later. ”

“ It will be seen from the above that a slur does not dispense with the necessity for tying consecutive notes of the same pitch, occurring in a passage sung to one syllable. For an apparent exception see a passage from Handel's “But who may abide”:
Fig. 26. ”

“ Short Score to Open Score.
47.—Co-relatively, in transcribing from short score to open, it will occasionally be necessary to put accidentals in the latter which are not in the former. The commonest form of this is probably in extracting a single part, soprano, alto, tenor, or bass, from an ordinary short score hymn or chant book, and writing it in a part-book for the particular voice. ”

“ As having been a personal friend of Beethoven's he was likely to know. (The great composer refers to him in corresponding with Ries in 1818.) The duration of these notes could not have been written otherwise than by means of ties. The above test is therefore inapplicable; this is evidently why, in the edition edited by Potter, they are marked with a tie plus a dot and horizontal stroke (Fig. 6a) .
Fig. 6a.
Another indication is the tying of an unaccented note to an accented one, thus obliterating the accent if the tie be observed literally (instances occur in Chopin's Valse, Op. 31, No. 1) . ”