Re: 3 Voices one staff

[Simon Albrecht]

Am 04.05.2017 um 18:47 schrieb David Kastrup:
> Simon Albrecht <address@hidden> writes:
>
> > Am 04.05.2017 um 18:13 schrieb Johannes Roeßler:
> > > With the direction of the stems indicating the hand
> > I think in order to really judge it one needs more context. From what
> > time is the music, are you in touch with the composer, what kind of
> > editorial policies are imposed, … ?
> > If it were 18th century music, the voice notation and stem direction
> > would certainly not indicate hand distribution and turning the lower
> > two voices into chords of one voice would be a sensible editorial
> > decision (if I played it I’d probably distribute hands like that).
> If it were 18th century music, mushing together separate voices into
> chords would be a complete no-no.  Even when played on a simplistic
> one-manual keyboard (or the new-fangled pianoforte), the player would be
> expected to keep the separate voices coherent or he could without loss
> be replaced with an automaton.

Come on, don’t exaggerate. If they’re written as chords, an intelligent 
player like you envisage would still recognise them as two voices and 
play them appropriately.
I’m very much in favour of sticking with the original notation, but I 
agree with Urs that that’s not really feasible here. So you have to die 
one death: either change stem direction, change beaming, move it on two 
staves, interlock beams in a very unpleasant way or write chords. The 
New Bach Edition for example often went with the latter, because with up 
to five homophonic voices on one staff not sharing any stems everything 
else is not compatible with modern engraving.
Also, it depends on whether it’s a strict contrapunctal composition like 
a fugue or not.

Best, Simon