Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner why is sheet music black?

is it 'color' for american english and 'coloUr' for british and australian english?

What's ossia? wikipedia says it's an "alternate" passage or something...?

Also, my sequencer currently only displays piano roll notation:
http://pianocheater.com/screenshot.html

I'll be adding standard(-ISH!) notation.
Tough row to hoe, but I'm gonna do it !!

and wow, talk about pwn the newb, i'm goin back the the adult beginner's forum

I wonder if anyone has tried one grand staff for piano music. I feel like it would significantly more difficult to read music. With 5 lines, it's not hard to determine position. But with the 11 lines (need one for middle C, assuming we keep the same range) of one grand staff, the middle lines would become a blur to me.

The color topic seems to have already been addressed, Henle editions are already expensive enough, we don't want them to get more expensive!

Well, yeah, ya sorta did, ya know?

"Is there a particular reason why sheet music has stayed black through the ages even with the advent of colored ink, colored printing, computers, cheap colored printers, monster sized flat screens, 3d ray traced computer games... (need i go on?)

(Bolds are my emphasis). I wouldn't say that mentioning "colored ink," "colored printing," "cheap colored printers" is saying nothing about printing!

guilty as charged.



So are you folks tryin to tell me that you're fine with black?
It's not cleeeeeeeeear to me...

Ok, I'll shut up bout that now

I have an edition of the Webern Variations which puts all of Webern's markings in colors around the original printed score (which is in black). Very interesting to see and easy to follow actually..

Yes. Like neighbor/neighbour etc.

I have just found this link for you...

Yes. You usually find above a passage (as an alternative).

I would call 'colour' etc. International English, rather than British English. There are a lot more English speakers who use the 'colour' spelling outside Britain than within it.

About 220 million Indians are English speakers (with standard international spelling rules), though not necessarily as their first language. Nigeria has another 80 million. There are about 60 million in the UK.

Am I allowed to actually PREFER black&White (broken white, not pure white) over a coloured score, please? I largely prefer it, as I prefer in some forms of art the scetch form, rather than the fully coloured speed painting (for example).

Well, for one thing, if everything were on one stave, it would be incredibly complicated.


And, not trying to turn this into a flame war on spelling, the English English spelling of words such as 'colour', 'honour' and 'realise' is the correct spelling.
In the same way that the way French words are spelt in France is the correct way for the French language.

The font color on this forum is an example of why sheet music is printed in black. It is more difficult to read this dark taupe color than black print.

Someone brought up the idea of contrast, too, which is also very important. The best quality scores aren't black and white, they're black and off-white, which remains clear while being easier on the eyes. Henle, Vienna Urtext, Schott, Durand, etc... Paper quality is also very important. A flat, cheap piece of printer paper isn't nearly as easy to read as something with some weight and texture.

As suggested by most ... black on white (or off-white ... thanks Kreisler) ... has proved itself over many years to be easiest on the eyes and to register.

Why want to fix it ... when it's not broke?

Emphursis1: Are you from the UK? It sounds as if you are from another European country?

There is no such thing as "English English". The UK does not have an official dictionary, word list or style guide. The most widely known dictionaries and style guides - those by Oxford University Press - contradict the conventions used by the BBC and by Her Majesty on a number of issues, especially the spelling of words of Greek origin ending in -ise or -ize.

This doesn't mean that you can just mix and match any spelling you like. You must choose a system of usage and spelling appropriate to the social "class" that you wish to associate yourself with, learn all the explicit and implicit rules, and apply it consistently.

If the grand staff remained as it is now but ledger lines between the two staves weren't used (apart from middle C obviously) that could simplify things somewhat. I guess some engravers already do something similar as it's really just a matter of style. On a Bach fugue I can see having the hands clearly separated being helpful but I hate having to read 4 or 5 ledger lines above the bass clef in a Scriabin piece.

On the other hand ledger lines aren't too big a problem as they can be memorised just like all the other notes on the staff. Perhaps things should just stay as they are.

Would be nice if all young kids were given a basic music reading education. Not that it will happen - even decent handwriting and spelling don't seem to be taught anymore.

I meant the English spoken in England (namely Queens English)

You can change the font color (colour!) on your screen.
Go to
- "My Stuff," then go to
- "My Preferences," then go to
- "Your preferred style sheet"
and experiment with the choices.

I have chosen "Pastel" mainly because it present black text on a white background.

Regards,

I could see some advantage in marking different voices through some scores, each with its own color. Certainly I use a highlighter when studying text, and it seems to me that marking music for structure could also be a good use of the highlighter.

In printed words, it might be interesting if the passages were printed in the color of their emotional or expressive content. You could use the size of the print to indicate the volume, too.

Of course, as has been pointed out, it would come at a considerable cost of money, and --- as has not been pointed out--- it would sacrifice the charm of ambiguity. It might also impair our ability to garner clues from the context.

I have some little trouble reading print where the letters are randomly scattered in color; also when the print is reversed in color or printed in a face and color that lacks contrast, or where the paper reflects surface glare too easily. A score can have all these problems. After all, when we read words, words are what the mind sees (not so much letter-by-letter), and the same is true for musical 'words.' We try to see the sense of the whole glyph at once, not the 'letters.'

But if using color helps you, I say, mark away and good luck to you with it.

You mentioned gray print--- I have some Alfred editions that do use this convention to call out editorial content. It is fairly helpful that way.