Extremes of musical notation

[goldberg988]

Here's a link that I think some people might find interesting like I did, since were all into music notation here...

http://php.indiana.edu/~donbyrd/CMNExtremes.htm

[imslp]

Hehe... I don't know if it is mentioned there, but a few months ago I was listening to Crumb's Macrocosmos with my prof, and boy did it have weird notation... there were circles, crosses, and other stuff. The publisher must have spent a fortune typesetting that score

[Yagan Kiely]

Look at Penderecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima and Crumb's Black Angles. Both good pieces to.

[kongming819]

Wow...looks like a great reference...
Does it have a section on tone clusters?
I once saw one that was a large rectangle over the stave half black and half white...

[Carolus]

Interesting reference. Crumb, BTW, draws all of his own pieces by hand. I remember and editor for C. F. Peters talking about this years ago at a publisher's convention. Using a combination of programs like Finale or Sibelius plus Photoshop and Illustrator, it is actually possible to produce such extravaganzas on computer. You could expect to pay about $100 or more per page, too.

Classical music publishing (of contemporary works) is considerably riskier than playing the stock market, probably on a par with gambling at casinos.

[imslp]

Classical music publishing (of contemporary works) is considerably riskier than playing the stock market, probably on a par with gambling at casinos.

Lol! Sad but true.

[morningscelsi]

You guys should check out some of malcolm goldsteins scores. Pretty neat. Also, didn't bartok use some weird spiral notation at one point?

[goldberg988]

You're thinking of the "See-Saw" piece from the set ...... (I can't remember the title... Sketches? or something?). I think Sorabji gets pretty crazy, as does Michael Finnissey.

[daphnis]

Crumb, BTW, draws all of his own pieces by hand.

Yes, indeed he does. And even today Peters (which I believe is his sole publisher) just reproduces his manuscripts in nice calligraphy rather than paying an engraver the huge sums it would take to typeset his music with all his notations.

I have actually done some typesetting of some such scores (which I do professionally) using all kinds of crazy (read: unique) notational features. I decided one summer to give in and learn the art of font editing and creating and now have a font that I've made in which I draw and add various symbols for these indications. It is a great solution in my opinion because the font can then be loaded into Finale or Sibelius (or anything that uses fonts for that matter), and they print beautifully at any resolution because of the nature of fonts.

[Korobushka]

the britten violin concerto's highest note is a c# 11 ledger lines up, non harmonic

[wbsoft]

These scores are also nice and quite extreme:
http://thrillingwonder.blogspot.com/200 ... cores.html

[emeraldimp]

These scores are also nice and quite extreme:
http://thrillingwonder.blogspot.com/200 ... cores.html

Well, yes, but they aren't seriously meant to be played!

[Yagan Kiely]

I remember seeing a score for Solo trumpet of an F# 8 octaves above middle C.

[Rachmaninoff]

OMFG

[mister_pianoman]

I remember seeing a score for Solo trumpet of an F# 8 octaves above middle C.

in some more recent brass music, I have seen composers simply notate rediculously high random note when they wanted a squeak of some sort. Probably mostly to help keep brass players egos in check.

p.s...i am not 100 percent sure that 8 octaves above middle c is possible on any instrument and it is definately not possible on a trumpet, even if you are playing a piccolo.