Re: DrumStaff question

[Jacques Menu Muzhic]

Thanks a lot Torsten for this exhaustive answer, most instructive!

JM

> Le 13 juin 2018 à 14:33, Torsten Hämmerle <address@hidden> a écrit :
> 
> Menu Jacques wrote
>> A side question is (I’m no percussionist): how does one chose between
>> DrumStaff and RythmicStaff?
> 
> That's how I handle it resp. what I've learned about it.
> Off the cuff:
> 
> *Tuned Percussion*
> Timpani, (and even glockenspiel, xylophone, marimba, vibraphone, tubular
> bells…) are regarded as percussion instruments and are being played by the
> percussionists. They have definite pitches and therefore get an ordinary
> Staff with an appropriate clef (treble^8, treble, bass...).
> Traditionally, they sometimes won't even get general key signatures but use
> individual accidentals.
> 
> *Single rhythmic instruments*
> Instruments like triangle, snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, tamtam, etc., may
> get a RhythmicStaff with one single line (at least in the full score) just
> so save space and there is no need to distinguish between different
> pitches/instruments.
> 
> *Multi instruments*
> In orchestral real life, however, it is quite common for percussionists to
> play multiple instruments and often change instruments during a piece.
> Therefore, even the aforementioned single instruments will be notated in a
> five-line DrumStaff where the notehead positions don't refer to definite
> pitches but to different instruments.
> Or, even if (classically) played by individual percussionists, bass drum and
> snare drum, for instance, will be combined in one single DrumStaff. This
> also helps avoiding a large number of individual parts (mainly consisting of
> rests ;)).
> *Remark:* Even if several instruments will be combined in one part/stave,
> they might get separate staves (even one-line RhythmicStaffs) in the full
> score.
> *Cue quotes:* A strong argument for using five-line staves even for single
> percussion parts is the possibility of quoting other instruments.
> Just imagine a triangle part mainly consisting of rests. It is a great help
> for the performing musician to see quotes of other instruments for much
> better orientation. "I'll have to ping after this and that trumpet signal…"
> 
> *"Intermediate" cases*
> Some percussion instruments consisting of two or three "pitches" (not
> deliberately tuned), such as congas, bongos, agogo bells, will get a two or
> three line stave in order to be able to distinguish between the "low" and
> the "high" pitches.
> Note: "Since a percussionist is used to reading the five-line stave, a stave
> of either four lines or more than five lines is difficult to read and should
> not be used." [Gould]
> 
> *Drumset*
> The drumset/drumkit used in rock/pop/jazz is a combination of different
> percussion instruments and will definitely get a DrumStaff.
> 
> 
> *Full scores*
> Single line rhythmic staves (even if the parts use five-line staves) might
> be preferable in full scores because they can be clearly distinguished from
> melodic staves (representing actual pitches) of the surrounding instruments.
> But, traditionally, I've seen five-line triangle staves in full scores 
> 
> 
> All in all (just my opinion/understanding):
> The reason that single-line percussion staves can mainly be found in
> didactic literature is that in educational rhythmic "snippets", drum
> rudiments, a combination of different instruments is not needed.
> In the vast majority of performance material, one or the other reason mostly
> ends up in using a five-line stave.
> 
> All the best,
> Torsten
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Sent from: http://lilypond.1069038.n5.nabble.com/User-f3.html
> 
> _______________________________________________
> lilypond-user mailing list
> address@hidden
> https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user