[log in to unmask] writes:

>I feel both Bartok and Carter tried to scale the mountain of increasing
>notational detail, and then backed off.  The post tried to convey this,
>but I agree clarification is needed.

That does clarify it quite a bit.  I think Carter's notation specificity
peaked around the time of the Second Quartet and the Double Concerto, as
well as an article (in Perspectives, I believe) about rhythmic notation
(about 1960).  Afterwards, he does, as Stirling suggests, back away, though
his scores remain rigorously notated.  There is a tremendous amount of
interpretive freedom here, as the many recordings of the solo piano work
"Night Fantasies" will attest.  The recent Clarinet Concerto has been
recorded twice already, and the performances vary greatly in their
interpretive nuance.

Steve Hicken