Brian's Bullpen (of Blind Blundering)

[Brian]

Okay, folks. It's time for me to try and figure out how to get the incredible amounts of original music which rage through my head, onto paper. I seem to have an instinctive knowledge of most of the compositional 'rules,' a really good grasp of orchestration, and a critical inner ear that weeds the boring stuff out (or, sadly, just forgets it, as has happened to 95% of my music). Some complete and unforgotten compositions include a violin concerto, an oboe concerto, two movements for a symphony, a couple waltzes for solo piano, a variations movement for string quartet, and a pastiche waltz goofily combining two dissimilar composers' styles ("Brahms Lake"). Plus arrangements of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No 2 for full orchestra and No 6 for string orchestra, and Beethoven's Op 109/iii for string quartet.

But the problem is, how to actually translate notes heard into notes on paper. I just can't figure out how to hear a rhythm, say, and know how to notate it. The "it's just math" stuff is misleadingly simple. And I'm getting good at picking out intervals but only recognize a few notes.

Let's start with something very simple, manageable, concrete. I have Finale. What on earth is going on with this file?:

[karlhenning]

You need to re-load the fonts!

[Luke]

Hmmm looks like Penderecki!

[Brian]

You need to re-load the fonts!

How do I do that? The font box asks me if I want Times New Roman. I see there's a folder containing all the font stuff, Finale/Libraries/Maestro Font, but can't figure out how to apply it.

[karlhenning]

I needed a tech to help me (in my case, I even needed to download the fonts afresh from the Finale site).

[Brian]

Well, humbug. I was all ready to finally get a start on this. I'll deal with this when it's not after midnight.

[karlhenning]

Any luck?

[(poco) Sforzando]

Let's start with something very simple, manageable, concrete. I have Finale. What on earth is going on with this file?:

It looks like your quartet is going to be performed with a lot of cuts.

[Scarpia]

It looks like your quartet is going to be performed with a lot of cuts.

If only Wagner had that version of Finale.   

[karlhenning]

If only Wagner had that version of Finale.   

Oh, but he did, he did.