Re: Score spacing.

[Kieren Richard MacMillan]

Hello, Ralph:

> If I look at professionally produced stuff,
> within a system, the staves are always equidistant.

Actually, I have found just the opposite: the staves are *rarely* 
exactly equidistant! And this is especially true from page to page (as 
opposed to within a block of staves on one page): the staves expand and 
contract to accommodate the material. (I just confirmed with several 
scores of different types here at home...)

They may *appear* to be equidistant -- and, of course, they may 
actually *be* equidistant from time to time -- but from my experience 
(and double-checking), it seems that the goal of most engravers is to 
maintain a consistent "colour" of music (i.e., density of musical 
symbols) throughout a given score.

> I'm sure that a consistently spaced score page is more pleasing to the 
> eye
> than one that squeezes and stretches to requirement from page to page.

I would agree with this -- for one (extreme) example, I would much 
rather not use or engrave "condensed" scores (where empty staves are 
removed altogether), since it often makes it more difficult for the eye 
to follow individual musical lines, and it can lead to a false sense of 
performance "density" in the reader.

However, to qualify my agreement: when one must choose, I feel that it 
is more important to maintain a consistent "colour" to the score than 
exact spacing of staves.

Regards,
Kieren.