Talk:Rehearsal letter

Article TO DO

I've tagged this new article as a stub because it's missing a couple of important points:

1. When exactly did rehearsal letters come into general usage?
2. Who originates rehearsal letters? The composer? The librarian of the premiering orchestra? The editor of the first publication?
3. When were rehearsal numbers rather than letters first used?

I'm pretty sure research has already been done into these topics, and it's probably just a matter of looking it up. I will consult a couple of books on music notation. Dmetric 18:52, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)

On the first question: I don't know about general usage, but I think it was I who wrote in the Louis Spohr article that he invented rehearsal letters. My source, if I remember correctly, was the conducting article in Grove 6 (I don't really want to add that info to this article without double checking it, however). --Camembert 20:22, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I think that's the edition they have at the library here. I'll take a look. Dmetric 19:30, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Research into rehearsal letters?

This topic is so unbelievably trivial. Rehearsal letters mark places in the score. Is it really necessary to have an article on this? The only reason there might be any research on this is because PhD students are desperate for dissertation topics. I darn near stuck a VfD on this. Tell me you're not going to write an article on measure numbers or page numbers next. —Wahoofive (talk) 06:12, 19 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Measure numbers are not as straightforward as you might think. What do you number a pickup measure? Do you give the first and second ending bars the same number or a different number? etc. Volunteer Sibelius Salesman 17:33, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

If you're challenging me to write articles on measure number or page number, I must decline. I don't know enough to write much more than a dictionary definition. But just because my knowledge of the topic is limited doesn't mean there shouldn't be an article on the topic. Dmetric 22:52, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Given how much there is to say on this topic, with research to back it up, I would definitely vote "Keep" in a VFD. Besides, I wouldn't be so cynical of PhD students' dissertation topic choices if more of them ventured to research outside the standard music appreciation repertoire. Robert Happelberg 23:37, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)

There's nothing more frustrating than wanting the answers to something you don't know about, and not having the answers because somebody doesn't bother to provide the information. keep MMetro 22:15, 5 October 2007 (UTC)