I am hoping to enter the music in the attached image into a midi sequencing program.
The problem I'm having is understanding the musical notation here. Traditionally, accidentals follow pretty basic rules, at least according to the wikipedia article on musical accidentals:
Accidentals apply within the measure and octave in which they appear, unless canceled by another accidental sign, or tied into the following measure. If a note has an accidental and the note is repeated in a different octave within the same measure, the accidental does not apply to the same note of the different octave.
It adds:
Accidentals apply to subsequent notes on the same staff position for the remainder of the measure where they occur, unless explicitly changed by another accidental. Once a barline is passed, the effect of the accidental ends, except when a note affected by an accidental is tied to the same note across a barline. Subsequent notes at the same staff position in the second or later bars are not affected by the accidental carried through with the tied note.
However, citing Kurt Stone, the wikipedia article also describes a more modern approach to accidentals that is said to be used in modern scores (of which the aforementioned music is an example) that has a different set of rules which provides some advantages of compactness in atonal music. I suspect these rules apply to the music I'm working on:
1 - Accidentals affect only those notes which they immediately precede.
2 - Accidentals are not repeated on tied notes unless the tie goes from line to line or page to page.
3 - Accidentals are not repeated for repeated notes unless one or more different pitches (or rests) intervene.
4 - If a sharp or flat pitch is followed directly by its natural form, a natural is used.
5 - Courtesy accidentals or naturals (in parentheses) may be used to clarify ambiguities but are kept to a minimum
I'm hoping I can get some questions answered:
A) In the first instrument, the horns, at the top, why is there a natural (♮) on that first note in the bass? It's the very first note with no key signature, why do need to make it natural? Is this a courtesy accidental?
B) In the second instrument (oboes, clarinets, etc.) in the second measure has two sharps on each of those first two notes (presumably because they are separate instruments) and then no other accidentals for the rest of the measure. Does that mean the other notes are just C instead of C♯? Or are all those notes in that second measure C♯? This happens again in the third measure, which has a natural on the C an octave up. Generally confused about which notes are C and which are C♯ here.
C) Referring again to the oboes/clarinets third measure, If we have one accidental, say a sharp on the low octave to make it C♯, then we have a natural on the C an octave higher for the next note, does that mean that any C after that natural is natural unless it specifically has an accidental?
D) To solidify my grasp on this, can someone confirm that I have the right notes for the oboes/clarinets instruments here:
MEASURE 1
C# C# C# **C** C# C# C# C#
MEASURE 2
all notes C#
MEASURE 3
same as measure 1
MEASURE 4
all notes C#
MEASURE 5
same as measure 1
MEASURE 5
all notes C#
I'd greatly appreciate any assistance in understanding the use of accidentals here.