Here is a PDF file of blank manuscript paper that can be printed out on laser printers etc. It has 12 staves on it.
– A4 12 staff blank manuscript

For larger space between staves, here is a PDF file with 10 staves.
– A4 10 staff blank manuscript

When more staves are required on a pages (e.g. for sketches etc.), here is an A4 sized page with 18 staves.
– A4 18 staff blank manuscript

For larger staves, here is another A4 sized PDF with 10 staves.
– A4 10 staff blank manuscript (larger staves)

Note: all of these blank manuscripts are free from clefs, barlines, branding etc. Nothing annoying to get in the way of writing music.

This is how you pronounce Hindson:

://www.hindson.com.au/Audio/Hindson.mp3]

James Brown was without doubt one of the most original and impressive figures in twentieth-century popular music. Laying aside the political nature of his performance, from a musical perspective he was extremely impressive. His death on Christmas Day 2006 is a loss to music everywhere.

Here’s an example of James Brown in performance on Youtube:

Here’s a list from The Guardian newspaper of James Brown’s seminal hits:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-6302678,00.html

Personally I love his tight, funk-orientated music. Its repetitious, rhythmically interlocking riffs work really well with the interesting basslines. In many ways its repetitive natures presages electronic music genres such as techno, and it’s no surprise that his music was so extensively sampled in hip-hop works as well.

My own response to the music of James Brown is evident in the work Comin’ Right Atcha, which I composed in 2002 for the Australian tour of the Absolute Ensemble. Its conductor, Kristjan Jaarvi, suggested Brown’s music to me as a starting point of inspiration and I am so pleased he did.

For more information and programme notes on this piece, click here, and streaming audio of a performance of Comin’ Right Atcha in a new arrangement for 15 member chamber ensemble can be found on the ABC Classic FM website.

This English hypenated dictionary was initially created for use with Philip Aker’s Text Editor plugin, used within Finale (Mac version). It could easily be adapted for use in any music notation application (Finale, Sibelius etc.)

I have lost contact with Philip but the original purpose was to enable automatic hyphenation of lyrics for vocal/choral works. The resultant text could then be assigned to music as per the ‘Click to text’ method of lyric entry within Finale.

Essentially: to enter or import a block of text (e.g. a poem) and have it automatically hyphenated.

It was adapted from Grady Ward’s public domain English hyphenation dictionary. It contains approximately 380 000 words. This original hyphenation dictionary contains many acronyms, the vast majority of which have not been filtered out.

The hyphenation in this dictionary is based upon how singers sing syllables and text. The general rule is that each syllable should begin with a consonant. In singing relating to Western art music practice, vowels take up the majority of the sung note, meaning that consonants occur as late as possible, i.e. at the start of the next word or syllable. For example:

• hyphenation = hy-phe-na-tion (not hy-phen-a-tion, which makes more sense when read, but not when sung)

Double letters or consonants are broken up between syllables, particularly when they have a different sound. For example:

• syllable = syl-la-ble (the le in ‘ble’ is in essence a vowel, so is not broken up).
• ‘hyphenation’ = hy-phe-na-tion (the ‘ph’ is one sound and functions as such, so it is not broken up).
• ‘exception’ = ex-cep-tion

There are some exceptions to the rules given above:

– I have left ‘ing’ at the end of words as a standalone unit e.g. ‘des-crib-ing’. This is ugly but there are so many exceptions that require fixing by hand, it will take a long time!
– The issue of the letter ‘x’ is also an interesting one, particularly because there are two consonants in the one letter (ks). In the majority of cases I have left the ‘x’ with the preceding syllable. For example:

‘lexicon’ = lex-i-con (not le-xi-con)

This is very much a work in progress. You can scroll to any section and find a myriad of corrections that are required. However, out of 380 000 words, it’s pretty good in general.

If you wish to use this document as part of a software release of some sort (e.g. as part of a plugin or music notation application), you must ask my permission first. It will more than likely be granted free of charge.

Download the hyphenation dictionary. (1.1 MB)

Version History:
v.1.00 – initial release
v.1.08 – Nov 2006 – 2nd release