may be placed in each of the four spaces of the stave (which in the writer's opinion is the better plan, as being less liable to confusion with time-dots), or in the second and third spaces only, in accordance with a modern custom. Staccato dots and staccatissimo dashes, when two parts are being written on one stave, should be placed below the note if applying to the lower part, and above if applying to the higher. In the case of open score (a single part on one stave), they are best placed on the side opposite the stem.
Time-dots, or those which prolong a note one half, if applied to a note in a space, should be in the same space as the note; if applied to a note on a line they should be placed in the space above, if the next note of the part is higher, and in the space below if it is lower. The importance of this usage is often overlooked. If it cannot be called a rule, it is high time it was made one! When two parts are written on one stave, and a note is doubled, having two stems, one up and the other down, to indicate this, and in one part it is dotted, and in the other not, it is impossible, apart from this rule, to tell which part has the note dotted and which not (except, of course, from the context, which may expose any mistake). The following example from Henry Smart's "Festive March in D," for the organ, appears to contain two dotted half notes. It would probably be so read by anyone playing the passage at sight. The con-
