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From: allyn@milton.u.washington.edu (Allyn Weaks)
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Re: need book on music notation
Message-ID: <1991Apr24.033036.28042@milton.u.washington.edu>
Date: 24 Apr 91 03:30:36 GMT
References: <b43721.b4x@wang.com> <7180016@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM>
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Lines: 29

mic@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Marc Clarke) requests: [about notation books]
>Please post the answer, too.  Others want to know.

One of the best books available is Gardner Read's "Music Notation - A Manual
of Modern Practice."  It covers standard classical notation and some of the
variety of new notations for new music, as well as some page layout and
considerations for part extraction.  Well written and well illustrated, and
more complete than any of the 'how to read music' notation books.  I very much
wish that people writing notation packages would read this book!  It's
available in paperback for $15 from Taplinger, ISBN 0-8008-5453-5.  (There's
also a cloth edition, I think.)

Another book that's worth digging up if you can find it is "The Art of Music
Engraving and Processing" by Ted Ross, Hansen Books 1970, out of print.  But
it is available through interlibrary loan (try the Spokane, Washington Public
Library).  Much of it is obsolete though interesting (about hand engraving and
punching) but it is the only known book on music typography as opposed to
notation, and talks a lot about vertical spacing, how beams should really be
done (with 8 pages of examples of most possible intervals!), some (but not
enough) discussion about horizontal spacing, and other aesthetic issues.

And if you get seriously into 20th century notation, there is Kurt Stone's
"Music Notation in the Twentieth Century", Norton, 0-393-95053.  It may not
still be in print, but any good music library should have it.  The first
chapter gives a useful summary of the basics, then the rest gets into new
pitch and duration techniques, and chapters for individual instruments.

Allyn Weaks
allyn@milton.u.washington.edu