Rests in compound meter

[Anders Hedelin]

I had a discussion with a client who asked for the traditional sixteenth rests in A to be combined into eighth rests as in B:

Now, what he actually requested was the above B with extended beams, wich certainly makes the rhythm clearer than without:

Combined rests 2.JPG (11.54 KiB) Viewed 500 times

In my eyes this looks simply wrong. (Also according to Gould it is.) Then I began to wonder, is this an innovation that's becoming accepted these days? Has anyone encountered this in professional notation?

[N Grossingink]

In 12/8 time, the equivalent to your 12/16 is shown below. The first is correct, the second generally is avoided. As John Ruggero said here not too long ago, today's generally accepted notation rules are the result of 200 years of development by composers, editors, engravers and publishers. Could be that ignorance plays a part in more recent "innovations".

[Anders Hedelin]

Thanks N Grossingink! I agree completely.

For some reason the second part of your example seems even worse than my B. Maybe it's because it's mixing apples with pears (Swedish expression, sorry). Sixteenths and eights both are "flag notes", and quarters are not. And, if extended beams are important, you can't very well have beams between eights and quarters!

[ebiggs1]

Has anyone encountered this in professional notation?

No.