On Some Points in the Received Method of Writing an Orchestral Score

Extract

I very much fear that the observations I have undertaken to bring before you to-day, under the dignified title of a ‘Paper,’ may be disappointing, for more reasons than one. I fear that they should have been illustrated by diagrams, for one thing; but I found that their adequate illustration in such a manner would have been too cumbrous for this, or any other like room, since they have to do with an orchestral score. Then I fear you may think me very revolutionary; for I am proposing to quarrel with old-established customs: with the way in which the pitch of certain orchestral instruments is represented on paper; and with which I cannot, probably, give any very scientific reasons for quarrelling.