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[Connie Browning]

Hello-

I have a question about pedal markings (orchestration by J. Daniel Smith) has markings that I have not experienced (though I have only been playing pedal harp since May) This piece has some gissandos marked with just B scale or C scale and those I know. However, there are several

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

Even though this question is difficult to understand due to the computer’s mis-reading of the symbols, I think I know what you are referring to. In some parts, people mark the flats as inverted V’s above the horizontal line and the sharps as V’s below the line. The naturals are simply lines that intersect the horizontal line.

[Connie Browning]

Computers are so fun-when I posted it, it looked just like the symbols I found and inserted from my computer.

There are no Vs in the music-what there is are Ls-some are large capital Ls others are L that are ‘laying down’-like right angles with the short part on the right side-like the capital L is flipped over with the short side on the right, pointing down. In the middle is a circle with an accent mark, much like an upside down capital Q. I’m assuming that is what separates the left/right. and the vertical lines are naturals. Does that make sense?

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

None, whatsoever, sorry to say. Sounds like another composer who doesn’t know how to write for the harp. Maybe Guy Bacos will recognize the set of symbols and know what was intended.

[Connie Browning]

Ok-the one symbol is just a large capital L, the other on looks like the right side of the border around the word: “Reply”. Is there a way to upload a file here? I can scan in the symbols. It’s frustrating!

Connie

[barbara-brundage]

>Is there a way to upload a file here? I can scan in the symbols. It’s frustrating!

No, there’s way to embed a link, though.

But the easiest thing would be to post it on pixentral.com if you don’t have any webspace of your own, and copy the URL of the image into a new post. (You don’t have to register or sign up to use pixentral and it’s free).

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

Perhaps the best person to talk to is the composer. We’ve all seen zillions of orchestra parts, but I have never seen anything like what you describe. You could try googling him.

[Victor Ortega]

Connie, if you scan the symbols and email the scan to me, I’ll upload it to my site and post a link here.

[Connie Browning]

Thanks Victor,

I sent it

Connie

[Victor Ortega]

[Victor Ortega]

Connie, looking at the key signatures and accidentals that go with each of the markings, it seems to me that the O with an accent is a separator (maybe the swell pedal?), the sideways reversed L is a pedal in the natural position, the I (or |) means a flat (pedal up), and the normal L is a sharp (pedal down).

[Connie Browning]

Elizabeth,

Thanks for that advice, I never even considered that-so I did find him and emailed him. He replied this morning and asked me to fax my copy to him. I was able to send him (in the email) the exact symbols from the music and he said it didn’t look like anything he used, that his pedal indications are the typical, traditional ones and that after the Finale file went to the publisher, something wierd must have happened with the font, (probably much like when I tried to put it here). Any way, I faxed it to him and hopefully he can explain for me and now he is aware that thnigs like this change in font can happen-(and make beginning-less experienced harpists, like me confused!) fortunately, there is this whole comunity to help. Thanks, Connie

[barbara-brundage]

That’s kind of a weird answer (didn’t he get a chance to proof it?). It looks to me like Sibelius output, so if the publisher doesn’t have the maestro harp engraver font, that would explain it. Still, doesn’t say much for the publisher that nobody questioned that!

Anyway, I’m glad you got an answer. FWIW, the composer is right–those characters in Engraver would create a standard pedal diagram.

[Victor Ortega]

Connie, I suggest asking the publisher to correct the mistake and replace all the misprinted sheet music with corrected music; you (or the church) would then either send back to the publisher the misprinted sheet music, or destroy it, according to what the publisher wants done with the misprints.

[barbara-brundage]

>And I hope that composers and arrangers nowadays send their final versions of music out as PDFs

Very few publishers will take PDFs, since they almost always need to reformat the music to their own template and this is about a million times easier to do with a finale or sib file. FWIW, I know a lot of professional engravers who sigh for the days when they got simple manuscript copy from composers/arrangers, because they think that’s actually faster to set up than trying to fix all the oddities that can creep into files that are typeset by people who really don’t know what they’re doing.

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