RB Piano Forte Chronicles

MUSICAL NOTATION HAS ALWAYS been an area of ‘creative inventiveness’ – sort of like parking in Paris. Tempo, loudness, crescendos – all of that has to be indicated, somehow. Hopefully in universal terms.

In scanning the Chopin, I came across many notes preceded with a small ‘x’. I thought that was just another sign for ‘natural’, or resetting the accidental. But, it didn’t sound right and it didn’t finger right.

A quick trip to Wikipedia (Modern Musical Symbols) revealed that what I was looking at was double sharp.

Ah. Learn something new every day. Applying that, things make more sense, at least musically.

It doesn’t make sense visually, though. I’m half tempted to rewrite it with the actual notes, rather having to do the confusing mental shifts to hit the right key – I’m a slow enough reader, as it is.

The problem with doing that, though, is there aren’t enough of them to warrant rewriting the whole piece, and besides, I’m not sure I could read my own scribbled out version, anyway.

So, I rely on heavily marking the relevant changes with my ‘ever-present’ pencil and moving on. I have to memorize it, anyway, which will render all the markings historical.