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Guidelines for Assignment Two: Notation
Submit hard copy. Make a nice presentation. Imagine you're giving this to an ensemble to perform. You want this to be easy to read. You don't want them to be confused or have any questions whatsoever. The music should be completely unambiguous for them. Submit fully notated works only. No lead sheets. It is recomended that you notate a classical piece, rather than jazz or pop. Jazz and pop music are wonderful, but they are often not notated as fully and specifically as classical music. If you can notate for classical, you can certainly notate jazz and pop. The reverse isn't necessarily true. This should be for an ensemble of instruments, notated in common practice, concert style. Do not write for a capella groups. Do not use hand written fonts. If you want to write for a jazz ensemble, notate it as you could for a classical ensemble -- jazz players can read music written this way. The printed score should include a cover page with the title, composer, arranger, and list of instruments. Also include any special playing instructions, if necessary. Assemble all materials in a folder or portfolio - again, in some way that holds everything together, like you would prepare for a professional ensemble. Guitar tabs are fine, but there should only be one guitar. The rest of the instruments should be notated in orchestral notation. Don't confuse ties and slurs! Parts are typically printed portrait, not landscape. The conductor's score may be written in concert pitch, or with the appropriate instruments transposed. The parts should have the appropriate transpositions. The audio CD should be created from a MIDI sequence. You may be happy with the way your notator realizes the arrangement, in which case you can just play it from the notator and make a recording using Wiretap. Alternatively, you may want to save your notation file as a MIDI file, bring it into Logic Express, and clean up things like tempo changes, trills, dynamics, synthesizer patches, etc. The piece should last at least 90 seconds, 50 measures, at least 5 parts, and three different instruments. Include a write-up that describes why you chose the instruments you chose, any strategies you employed in preparing the arrangement, and what special notation requirements those instruments required. List at least one thing you learned about notating for that instrument from looking at the appropriate notation guides or textbooks. Don't assume that if you play a particular instrument you know how to notate for it. This is a common mistake. Look at a book and make sure.
Submit:
To save a file in PDF format, go to File -> Print, and click the PDF button. You'll want to read the Advanced Work in Sibelius documents posted on the Announcements page. If you're not familiar with notated music for the instruments in your piece, do some reading on how music is written for them. Samuel Adler's book on The Study of Orchestration (MT70.A3) is a good place to start. You are also urged to purchase a notation guide such as The Essential Dictionary of Music Notation (Alfred Publishing, ISGN 0-88284-730-9), which is often available at the student bookstore, is inexpensive and pocket-sized. You might want to start with this pamphlet prepared by the US Music Publishers' Association. But you'll want to look further to get detailed information on the instruments you're notating for. Keep the following in mind:
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