Jette,
I'm not sure how to explain the progression as written.
I don't process music this way, and it seems abstact or foreign to me.
I voice chords from the top voice downward. I spell chords from the bottom upward.
The lowest pitch is played with either my left hand pinkey or ring finger, then the other voices take my left hand middle finger, pointing finger or thumb.
The highest pitch is played with either my right hand pinkey, or ring finger, then the other voices are played with my middle finger, pointing finger or my thumb.
This method of dividing the left hand from the right with a (/) slash seems very strange to me.
I don't know if the author is thinking top down and all voices follow, or if he is thinking bottom up and all voices follow.
There is no explanation, and some of the posts are actually impossible to play. I have seen notations on this site, that require a human being to have 20 fingers and be a contortionist to reach the distances between pitches in these voicings.
This method works for some of the users in this user group. They appear to understand it fully.
There are some posts that I play, that indeed do make sense. I hear and understand the sounds they are notating, but there are far too many that leave me wondering what the author was trying to say.
I think in terms of a melody in the top voice and a melody in the bottom voice. These melodies may be the same at times, however different at other times. The pitches between the top and bottom vary, and are up to the individual musician.
There are many roads to Mecca. There are many ways to voice a chord, and they are as many and varied as there are people and roads to get here or there.
The way in which we arrange our alto and tenor parts and divisions of SopranoI and II, AltoI and II, TenorI and II are many, however they should be consistent. The voices that come below these should follow come consistent logic as well.
The keyboard part may be exactly what you have the choir sing, or it might be a variation.
In standard music notation the Treble Clef indicates a representation of pitches that are vertical. The highest pitch is highest on the page. The lowest pitch is lowest on the page. These pitches represent what the Soprano and Alto are to sing, as well as what pitches the right hand is playing in its accompaniment of the choir.
In standard music notation the Bass Clef indicates a representation of pitches that are vertical. The lowest pitch is lowest on the page. The highest pitch is highest on the page. These pitches represent what the Tenor and Bass are to sing, as well as what pitches the left hand is playing in its accompaniment of the choir.
On the keyboard the orientation is left to right or right to left. I believe users at this usergroup are trying to explain music in a left to right orientation, but sometimes make mistakes that do not define the sound they are trying to represent.
Microsoft has standard music notation templates, that are available at their website for people to use in Office 2003. I don't know if explanations on standard notation would help you or not. The templates are available for people to use as attachments to emails.
Many of the people at this site do not understand standard music notation, so they don't write using it and may not understand what is written on it.
The method has been around now for several centuries. It is used all over the world, except at this site.
No individual thought it up. It was the collective work of people all over the world for centuries, trying to come up with something that is a clear graphical explanation on how music actually works.
No individual gets credit for creating it. I do hope that one day people on this site will start using it. It is not hard to learn. From the intellect that I have seen demonstrated on this site, I see where it would not be hard to learn and use.
I hope that people will begin to use it some day.
brother scott
