Kathleen
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Hi there!
Apologies for the delay - there is an issue with the site and it is not alerting me to posts that appear here!
The way you have Brailled this example with the repeats is 100% correct! (Be sure to remove the extra 4th octave indicator on measure 7 if you chose to retain the repeats.)
Kathleen
You could do either open score or piano (all intervals read upward) with solo line.
If you have other pieces (such as the Bach you asked me about) that are in the same volume, I'd use a similar format for each if possible. The important thing is to be consistent. If you have multiple formats, just include a TN before the example saying which format you're using.
Hi Robert,
Apologies for the late reply.
I usually do open score for analyses like this.
You can label the parts SATB or two right hands and two left hands or two treble clefs and two bass clefs. Your choice - just be consistent!
Kathleen
Hello Robert,
It's quite unorthodox to mix the choral format with the piano format - I wouldn't attempt that, actually. I would treat the upper line labeled voice as a single part with the "tenor," "do," "alto," "mi" etc. as word sign expressions before the notes to which they apply.
Unless this is specifically meant to be sung by a choir with each person taking a separate note, I wouldn't try to turn it into a choir piece. It's more comprehensible to describe in a short TN before the example that the part labeled voice is transcribed as the right hand and then explain what you're doing with the text/labels.
If you feel you must transcribe it as individual voices with added rests, you'll need to treat the whole thing as ensemble format, not a blend of piano and choir. You can find the format description in MBC2015 Section 33. If this is the way you're going to go, also refer to section 38 and use the solfège syllables as text rather than placing them underneath the parallel.
I think just doing it as piano format is cleaner, but it's hard to judge without knowing the context of this particular example.
Hope that helps!
Kathleen
Thanks for your patience, Robert.
I've attached a brf with my transcription of these 5 measures.
I would include a lengthy TN at the start (I'm sure you've got one going already!) to explain that the music is mostly unmeasured, and as such you will be aligning notes vertically to follow the print placement of chords and musical events within the measure. I would NOT add rests and attempt to figure out on which beat a chord would fall in an unmeasured piece like this.
So - in measure 1, I moved both footnote indicators to the start of the measure. Both hands have diamond shaped notes, so I indicated that in both parts. (I also fixed the first note of the left hand.) I aligned the notes vertically, along with their part-measure repetitions. Without some sort of alignment factor, the braille reader would not know that the diamond shaped whole notes and the diamond shaped quarter notes were to be played simultaneously. (I toyed with using coincidence signs, but the vertical alignment was better for the rest of the piece, so I went with that throughout.)
I left blank lines between parallels for clarity.
Measure 2 - I expanded the parallel to three lines and aligned the musical "events" vertically, using guide dots where necessary. For the wavy line that means "let die away", instead of using a footnote, I created a symbol which, set apart by blank cells, now means "let die away." I listed it in the SS list. As you'll see in measure 5, I use the same figure but lengthened it, to represent the longer wavy line. I think the vertical alignment of the chords is clearer that adding rests which don't really make sense in this rhythmically ambiguous piece.
Measure 3 - same as measure 2 basically.
Measure 4 - easy! Actually metered so it's quite straightforward. I decided vertical alignment was not necessary here, though it would certainly be ok to do so to maintain consistency.
Measure 5 - I used the x-shaped notehead to represent the knock symbol (and defined it in the SS list.) Even though we are still in 4/8 theoretically, I vertically aligned the events to make it very clear. I don't think added rests are needed. I divided the measure after the left hand knock. Notice the longer wavy line in the right hand.
Let me know what you think about these solutions. Also - could you let me know which piece this is? This would make a great bulletin article topic!
Thanks!
Kathleen
Robert,
Thanks for the good question!
It's my opinion that the different key signatures would prevent us from being able to combine the hands and reducing the parallel. Imagine how hard that would be to remember which hand is playing and which notes are sharped vs which are natural.
I believe following the method in 6.5.1-1 would be appropriate. And since the RH has no accidentals in the signature, you could just list the left hand. I don't think you need to do anything different that listing the usual 5# signature after the LH sign, even though the F# is on the first space of the treble staff, they are still in the usual order.
Hope that helps. And as always, if you feel like more clarity is needed, you can always add a sentence on your TN page about being aware that the hands may have different key signatures.
I would leave the brackets out all together. Since you've described it in your TN, the brackets in the music line don't add to or aid the analysis.
Hi Robert,
I think the terminator can be dropped, as it is a very strange notation as it is. I think the grade one indicator is enough to represent the letters.
I usually just treat it like open score instrumental, but with S A T B as the marginal indicators. No need to use space to say "no words" - just define your marginal indicators as usual and it should be clear!
Hi Robert,
This is just inconsistent print type. Just do the figured bass in the usual manner, without regard to the different sized font.
I strongly feel it's cumbersome and confusing to try to include them within the music - the student is trying to figure out the piano format already. Adding a new format for them to figure out, as well, seems unnecessary. I include in my mega TN that the lyrics are brailled after the music.
Hi Robert!
First off - is this a piano method book? If not, let me know and I'll rethink some of these answers. But assuming it is....
You'll want to have a long TN before the music example explaining what's going on. You can say that the music between the bar lines is labeled "measure." And that counting is printed below the notes. Say that the measure will be spaced irregularly to accommodate the numbers below the music. Let them know that a dot 5 indicates the measure is to be continued. Describe that the letters are printed inside the notes but that will be omitted in braille. You can also say that the instruction "play 3 1 together" appears before the first chord in your TN. I would not use the music finger numbers - took me a minute to figure out what was going on there! Just use the numbers. - and then don't forget to include the fingering in the music itself.
I would use typical piano format, with the measure number at the margin without the numeric indicator, and the usual right-hand sign and intervals read downward, not upward. "Count" doesn't need to be enclosed in transcriber's note indicators since it appears in print. Use a music hyphen after the first half note and its interval to indicate the measure is not completed.
(Just a word 0f caution - when doing single-line format, which you started with the number 1 (with numeric indicator) at the margin, we don't put word sign expressions above the measure like that. Expressions will always be in line with the music. We can only remove them from the parallel in bar-over-bar format - which I am suggesting you change to! And if you put the direction in your TN or before the music, you don't have to include it in the music itself, either above the parallel or within it. Does that make sense?)
Please let me know if you are working with something other than a piano book or if anything looks weird or confusing!
Thanks!
Kathleen
I've never thought about doing it like that, but sure! You may want to add more lines below the black keys to give a little more separation between the bottom of the black keys and the lower edge of the notes.
Hello Robert,
In situations like these the transcriber's note will be your best friend. I would put a note before the music begins saying something to the effect of "There is a downward pointing arrow above the first chord in the left hand."
And yes, the straight lines connect the tenor line, where the "sol" pedal tone is occurring, as per the text. This information could be added to the transcriber's note before the music begins. I'm assuming you'll place the text that is printed between the staves before the music, as well.... so your TN could follow that information.
My rule of thumb is that if the annotations are going to gunk up the braille music and make it difficult to read, remove the annotation and describe it in a tn either before the music or put in a footnote.
Hope that helps!
Kathleen
