Sorabji Playing

[moi_not_toi]

How is it done? COuld someone explain the notation to me?

[lostinidlewonder]

Play each voice seperately, then add them all together. It's as easy as that! I never noticed anything strange about the score of Sorabji, the notes all seem understandable enough.

[JCarey]

[moi_not_toi]

Wow. so runs going from top to bottom do exactly that?

[ahinton]

Without wishing to presume the specific nature of the problem that the initiator of this thread perceives, I suggest that it may be to do with Sorabji reading rather than Sorabji playing. The pianist Jonathan Powell, for example, has reworked (for his own benefit) quite a few systems from scores of Sorabji piano pieces by reducing the number of staves (staffs if you're American!) that the composer himself and/or his publisher used, thereby making the passages concerned easier to read and, as a consequence, easier to learn to play. There are, of course, occasions when Sorabji's piano writing just has to be presented on three, four five or even six staves for the best compromised between legibility and intelligibility, but there are plenty more where the stave count need be no more than two or three. This music is often physically challenging enough as it is; anything that can be done to make it look less daunting to the intelligent pianist who is about to practise it can only be a good thing.

Best,

Alistair

[moi_not_toi]

So a treble abouve the treble stands for 8va above? and a bass below the bass stands for 8va below? cool.

[prometheus]

No.

[moi_not_toi]

SAY WHAT!!!!
All of the sudden I think that I 've got it figured out and then u com e along and tell me no.
who are you, God??

[prometheus]

Its about the I with a ^ on top or below it. Otherwise the treble staffs will be the same.


Wooden staves and musical staffs.

[moi_not_toi]

yeah, so what's ur point?

[prometheus]

The middle two treble staffs are equal, eventhough one is above the other. Only the upper one is 8va because of the I and ^.

It should all be on the first page of the sheet music.

[moi_not_toi]

Sorry, I didn't see it.

[liszt1022]

Sorry, I didn't see it.

Sometimes Sorabji (among others) will use multiple treble or bass clefs just to show which voice is doing what. Since his counterpoint often involves voice crossings, it's easier to see melodic directions that way. If they were on less staves you run the risk of getting the voices mixed up.

[moi_not_toi]

Ah.