> I've been unable to find ABC files with the much-talked-about > bang (!) for breaking lines. Could any good soul send me some > examples? It's for extending abcpp to deal with this beast.
Here's another one using it the way I want to. The point of reproducing the original linebreaks isn't just for historical documentation; it's a lot easier to see if your transcription is right if the line breaks are in the same places on the screen staff display as on the page. Linebreaks in mid-bar are common in this period, both in MS and print. It's an interesting tune too. As far as I know it has only been published once before in a form anything like this, and that was in the 1790s. It's a Scotticized version of a northern English hornpipe from the 17th century, "Three Sharp Knives". X:1 T:Old Age and Young S:Drummond Castle/Duke of Perth MS (David Young, 1734) B:NLS Acc.7722/MS.21715 N:pseudo-type-facsimile, showing original staff linebreaks by ! signs Z:Jack Campin 2003 M:3/2 L:1/8 Q:1/2=120 K:G Minor G4 B3 c d2(cB)|A2 F4 cB A2 (G^F)|G4 B3 c d2(cB)|A2 G2g2 G2 TA2(G^F)::! DG^FA G2G,2 B,4 |D2 F4 B2 TA2 (G^F)|DG^FA G2G,2 B,4 |D2 G4 B2 TA2(G^F)::\ GABG ABcA! BcdB |A2 F2c2 F2 ABcA |GABG ABcA BcdB |A2 G2g2 G2 ABcA ::\ Gg^fa! g2G2 TA4 |F2 f4 F2 ABcA |Gg^fa g2G2 TA4 |G2 g4 G2 ABcA H:: Notice how easy it is to ignore the linebreaks when reading the source if you aren't interested. That's the point - most of the time you *will* ignore them. I regard the last three characters as optional. The two-sided repeat at the end doesn't mean anything special, and the fermata simply means that's where the tune stops (as opposed to "Fine" somewhere else), so :| would convey the same meaning. (The fiddler would probably have ended with a big fat three-string G minor chord). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jack Campin: 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU; 0131 6604760 <http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack> * food intolerance data & recipes, Mac logic fonts, Scots traditional music files, and my CD-ROM "Embro, Embro". ------> off-list mail to "j-c" rather than "abc" at this site, please <------ To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
