Composing in Finale....Is there a more satisfying feeling?

[Anders Hedelin]

I've never had any corruption problems when notating complex music, only when occasionally trying to play it back. It seems from your list that you use playback a lot.
I sort of can imagine how Finale, which is a very good tool for many things, yes, but still just a machine, is sweating when trying to "perform music" from an intricate notation.

[bvstudios]

This is perhaps too obvious to mention, but nonetheless..

What do you use as the "default" setting in Aria's pre-disk cache and Max RAM? Aria seems to want to start with minimums, but it only takes a moment during your initial setup to crank them up (I use 1Gb RAM and 96kB initial pre-cache, for instance)

Generally, I have fewer issues since I learned to keep both numbers pretty high. I wonder if a bump up on those settings might help you out?


As I said, maybe it's too obvious, but then again...

[zuill]

That's quite a list. I wonder if any of this (these) would still be a problem in v26.

Zuill

[motet]

Given their record of fixing bugs, I wouldn't count on much improvement. Some of these also (e.g. tuplets and compound tuplets, both fairly arcane), may be due to incomplete knowledge of the program).

[zuill]

v26 has revamped the articulation paradigm. The new approach may or may not help in avoiding as much manual adjusting. It's hard to say. I'm the first to report that most bugs have not been fixed between 2012 and v26. However, it's worth at least testing.

Zuill

[Anders Hedelin]

I'm convinced that actually listening to music engages different parts of the brain from imagining it, even for those gifted enough to hear a complete piece in their head.

Very wisely said, I would think.

Why did Mahler and Bruckner rewrite their symphonies even after publication (much to the confusion of modern-day performers confronted with multiple versions)?

This may be something different, though, more like ideas maturing with reception and over time. I don't think that you listen to your own music the same way when composing, in your head or at the piano etc., and when hearing it performed in public. Even if your ear was accurate when you were composing. The two situations clearly engage different parts of your mind.

[Djard]

I checked the advanced settings in ARIA player. Are the settings in the attached pic OK? My system has 24 GB RAM , Quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, nVidia GTX 960M with 4G GDDR5 VRAM, and 1TB SSD drive.

[bvstudios]

I'd crank up both the RAM and initial pre-cache (seen in the lower left). Aria generally will offer a variety of potential choices up to the max accessible simply by clicking on the display window showing the current setting.

As a "try", reset both values to one step below whatever Aria shows as the maximum, then go back to your composition and save it. That will lock in choices, and they will be the settings from now forward for that piece.

Then play with your composition and see if the fault happens again.

[Djard]

Thanks. I will crank it up further because Finale "stopped responding" when I was printing to file, which happens about one in 10 times. Despite its instability, I still like what Finale lets me accomplish.

Victoria, eh? I was raised in Altona.

[bvstudios]

Thanks. I will crank it up further because Finale "stopped responding" when I was printing to file, which happens about one in 10 times. Despite its instability, I still like what Finale lets me accomplish.

Victoria, eh? I was raised in Altona.

Ahh- Australia. You had me there for a moment or two. My Victoria is on Vancouver Island, off Canada's West Coast, just north of Seattle Washington.

OZ is on my bucket list, however.

[Anders Hedelin]

I rarely compose in chronological order therefore this platform is more suited to my way of writing than composing directly to notation software or to paper. I usually create kernels of material (maybe 15s long), and gradually move, rearrange, and develop these organically as I go, cross-pollinating ideas across the entirety of a work. "

Elliott Carter once told of a visit he made to Stravinsky when still a young man. On a table in S's study there were scraps of music sheets strewn all over, each containing a fragment of music. S showed him how he arranged and rearranged these to get the composition together. As a young, idealistic composer E C was rather shocked and afterwards he wondered: Can you really do like this?!...

I listened to some of Zosha di Castri's music on the the net, and as expected I couldn't actually 'hear' her work methods in the music. But from what she says, I can understand why she chooses to work with DAW before using more traditional tools.
In composition (as in war and love) anything goes, as long as it results in good music.

[David Ward]

I more often than not sketch the end of a large piece first, although the definitive ending may turn out a bit different.

I work at first in pencil and paper, but sketch on almost any possible scale, from little squiggles in musical shorthand in one of the notebooks I try to carry with me at all *times to pages of A3 transposing full score, from short phrases to whole scenes or movements - and very often completely out of the eventual order. As I've become fluent in Finale, I do sometimes find it practical to begin drafting a section in pencil, but then to continue it in Finale - as long as the relevant section of music is straightforward and also more or less conventional in its layout. For example, the piece I'm writing at present includes a role for a Scottish traditional singer: some of her set-piece music can be typed immediately into Finale (even though I stretch the harmonic conventions of the genre a bit).

*Bärenreiter has some nice little A6 32-page notebooks that have ordinary lined paper facing 8-stave music paper. There's not a lot of room for anything complicated, but these are very good to carry in a pocket (together with a pencil, a sharpener & an eraser [actually called a ‘rubber’ here in the UK, but I think that might be misunderstood in the US]).

[Djard]

I am sure the approaches outlined in this thread have proved effective in producing music that brings pleasure to the listener. For me, the theme must start in the head; for if the melody cannot be mentally heard, the work will probably be soon forgotten in history.

So I think if the listener can hum at least part of the melody after hearing it just one time is a good indication of successful composition. Yes, exceptions exist; but are not most of them related to something other than good composition? Who can even begin to hum Bach's laborious Chaconne? I doubt it originated in Johann's head; more likely it is the product of technique on the keyboard. The credit may go to the ivories and fingers rather than to the conscious mind of the master. Even Michelangelo did not paint a masterpiece every time.

[David Ward]

… … … …Bach's laborious Chaconne?… … … …

? ? ? You're not, I hope, describing Bach's wonderful, life-enhancing D minor violin chaconne as laborious.

I've been to live performances of that chaconne (whether stand-alone or as the finale of the complete partita) in which the violinist's rendering has engendered huge excitement in (and wildly enthusiastic response from) the audience. This is with both ‘sophisticated’ metropolitan audiences and remote rural ones with little experience of live classical music.

Perhaps you are referring to another piece?

[Anders Hedelin]

So I think if the listener can hum at least part of the melody after hearing it just one time is a good indication of successful composition. Yes, exceptions exist; but are not most of them related to something other than good composition? // For me, the theme must start in the head; for if the melody cannot be mentally heard, the work will probably be soon forgotten in history.

If you prefer music that's easily memorized and immediately rewarding, that's quite OK with me. I wish you all the satisfaction you can get from composing and listening in that way. What is less OK is that you judge all the music that doesn't fall into that category. Some of us like a composition to be more 'al dente' (sorry for the mixed metaphor). And some of us try to compose music that is different from what we know very well already, hence the vagueness of some of our first ideas.
Even Beethoven often started with sketches, also when creating as 'simple' a thing as a melody. A good example is the opening theme of the Spring Sonata for violin and piano, which began as a rather mediocre draft and ended up as one of the most charming melodies he ever wrote. Composed about two hundred years ago, and still not forgotten.

[Michel R E]

Guys, Djard is already well-known for attempting to start flame wars on various forums, with preposterous and unfounded statements.
I'd highly recommend ignoring any of his comments that do not have to do with Finale and technical assistance.

[Jay Emmes]

Discussions are informative. As long as she/he is respectful, I would like to invite her/him to start a discussion on any music/Finale related topic.

[miker]

<moderator hat OFF>

But this is not the place for philosophical discussions about music. It’s the place for discussions of music notation.

[motet]

Perhaps this thread has run its course.

[Jay Emmes]

<moderator hat OFF>

But this is not the place for philosophical discussions about music. It’s the place for discussions of music notation.

The twain will inevitably meet time and again.

[Djard]

I was referring to the 12 page grind in the adaptation for classical guitar, which to me sounds more like a repetitive and prolonged etude. But Perlman does make it listenable for me.

Michel, please don't judge me so harshly. Is my expressing a view inflammatory, or are you perfectionistic-OCPD reactive? Maybe it's a bit of both. Be nice! I feel safe with everybody else at this forum. Feel free to attack my argument. When you attack me with name-calling, it does not become you.

I apologize to all for getting caught up in the philosophical discussion.

[Deacon Don]

Just to be clear: Finale is a tool for notating music, right? Not composing, notating.

Not true. That's like saying a piano is just furniture. It's as much a tool for composing as a pencil and paper.

Anything that helps with composing, even a lawn mower, is a tool for composing.

One of the best composing features of Finale is Ctrl Z. If I erase a line (or a large part of a score) and find it
was a mistake then Ctrl Z. My eraser doesn't put it back.

I know a composer who fired a shotgun at blank manuscript. Music concrete was composed using
a tool for composing.

To limit a product like Finale to "notation software" isn't very accurate.

[Michel R E]

Just to be clear: Finale is a tool for notating music, right? Not composing, notating.

Not true. That's like saying a piano is just furniture. It's as much a tool for composing as a pencil and paper.

Anything that helps with composing, even a lawn mower, is a tool for composing.

One of the best composing features of Finale is Ctrl Z. If I erase a line (or a large part of a score) and find it
was a mistake then Ctrl Z. My eraser doesn't put it back.

I know a composer who fired a shotgun at blank manuscript. Music concrete was composed using
a tool for composing.

To limit a product like Finale to "notation software" isn't very accurate.

sadly, there is no "upvote" feature on this forum (that I know of), so...

+1

[Anders Hedelin]

Just to be clear: Finale is a tool for notating music, right? Not composing, notating.

But this is not the place for philosophical discussions about music. It’s the place for discussions of music notation.

I agree that Finale has its forte in music notation, but very concretely it also has a playback function. Some of us may use it more, some less, but it is there. Some use it for arranging and composition, some don't.
I would wish this forum to be open to all kinds of discussions in any way related to the use of Finale. If you are not interested in a particular thread, it's very easy to skip it, or skim it if you have to read.