James Allwright wrote: | > It sounds like you're saying that ">" cannot be used to notate the | > first notes of "Mari's Wedding" to play as I've always heard it | > played. This would be unacceptable. | | No-one else has used Mairi's Wedding to define the meaning of ">". | What ">" and "<" gives you in abc2midi is a notation for tunes in | 6/8 masquerading as tunes in 4/4. This covers hornpipes and probably | strathspays (though I can't tell since I don't get to hear very many | of those). This is not a mistake. Perhaps you should tell the generations | of musicians who have notated 6/8 tunes in 4/4 that that is unacceptable. | | Actually, having abc2midi as an "unacceptable" program is kind of cool. | I like to think of it being a bit of rebel software :-).
Actually, what would be better would be to have it recognize R:hornpipe as meaning that > implies a triplet, while R:strathspey rewrites > as >>. While strathspeys do have triplets, they are always notated as such (and have three notes). But it's common to "overdot" both the long+short and short+long (snap) rhythms to the extent that you can. You also sometimes hear the small notes played evenly, though this isn't common. But this would definitely decrease your rebel points. Maybe you could make up for it by having options that generate the latest in metal/industrial/whatever that critics are railing against. Then we could run through O'Neill's or Playford hear how all the tunes sound in that form. (I could list a bunch of other rhythms that could be mapped to a lopsided division like this. I'm sure that lots of others could, too.) To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
