Transcription of handwritten score
Collaboration
I have collaborated on many transcriptions of scores for OmniMusic Publishing, Czech Radio (Jan Kučera, Ondřej Brousek, Jan Ryant Dřízal, Jan Vičar, Jiří Gemrot, Zbyněk Matějů), Jaroslav Krček, Varhan Orchestrovich Bauer, Elia Cmiral, Roman Kariolou, Chistopher Young, Bernhard Eder, John Massari, Ondřej Brzobohatý, Nathaniel Méchali, etc.
Manuscripts
Transcribing a handwritten score is a very interesting yet demanding job. The typesetters (music graphic designers) have always had to schedule their work so that the future publication can be published by the publishing house, as far as possible without errors. Often a large number of details were found in print that either did not correspond with the original or were poorly copied, as many manuscripts are not properly understood or are difficult to read, and one can sometimes only guess what the poet, in this case the composer, intended to say.
Urtext
Publishers like Bärenreiter or Universal Edition Universal Edition have editions published as “Urtext” (the closest possible transcription to the original manuscript).
In my works for Czech Radio, Jaroslav Krček, Jan Kučera, Ondřej Brousek, Jan Ryant Dřízal, Varhan O. Bauer and others, I took a rather middle path, where I modified many details, but the spacing of the notes and the overall feeling of the written form I tried to preserve sometimes typographically.
Today’s composers are mostly familiar with the computer, so I used to edit and write out the scores and parts for the Czech Radio authors. It is true that for some compositions and also for some notation programs it is much harder to edit and prepare the score material. Especially when it comes to metrical or experimental notation. Notation programs are usually not built for that, and if something special can be done in them, the editing sometimes takes much longer than it would be possible to draw or write by hand.
Transcription tools
Chisel or mouse
Until recently, the music was set by hand using special chisels adapted for engraving into the metallic table. The curiosity was that the engravers had to set the symbols from right to left in an upside-down manner, because after completion the tablet was used as a pattern for printing, i.e. the cylinder in the machine was inked and the contents of the tablet were printed on paper.
It is absolutely clear that this work was very demanding in terms of materials, time and money.
Later, in the 1980s, special printed symbols were used on tracing paper, which were scratched out of the pattern book, while the note feet and beams were painted in ink.
Since the late 1980s, however, the creation of sheet music on the computer began, as the technological boom and the possibility of having a personal computer (PC) set great progress and accelerated many works.
Today, 95% of sheet music is created and transcribed using notation programs that are becoming more and more powerful, efficient and clever. For this purpose I use Sibelius, Dorico, MuseScore (open source), Finale and Notation Composer.
Sheet music
Quality first
As a engraver, it is important to me that the final output of my work is of the right standard. When I have the opportunity to print the sheet music myself, I always choose the best paper options according to my budget. For scores I choose a special yellowish hard paper with a weight of 160-220g/m2. It is either bound in a spiral metal binding or “taped” (glued) with 15-20 mm white or yellowish paper strips. For recording frequencies it is important to have the score preferably in either A3 (EU) or 17×11 (Tabloid – USA)
Creamy white (not completely white) paper is suitable for parts 140-180g/m2, that usually weighs into a scrapbook binding if the lot is over four pages. Up to four pages, only a booklet made from folded A3 paper is produced. If the part is a piano part or very demanding to turn, it is taped as for the score with white or yellowish tape. Parts are usually printed on A4 (EU) or B4 or Legal/Letter (14/11×8.5 – USA). Parts should be printed on slightly harder paper to eliminate rustling when turning.
