In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes >First congratulations to Guido on putting this together - it does seem to >include most of the updated features. I have stayed out of most of the >discussions on what to include/exclude from the standard, but would like to give >a group >of comments on this draft form (and I have counted to several hundred). >Although the list looks long it actually covers essentially only two topics: 1) >Additions to the accents and 2) note heads, only the latter being a real >addition to the proposed standard. > >Mick > > >1. In the accents I think it should be made clearer that multiple accents are >allowed. !pp!!trill! etc.
And what do you expect to see in this case? > >2. While the accents list is now fuller than formerly, there are some others >I think should be added: > > a) !diamond! to place a small diamond over the note *where* above the note? What does it mean musically? Artificial harmonics can be at different places to mean different harmonics. > > b) !circle! to place a small circle over a note > Both of these are used to indicate harmonics in various contexts > > c) !glissando(! and !glissando)! (after fashion of crescendo) to draw a >glissando line between notes > > d) !tremolo1! !tremolo2! and !tremolo3" to draw a note with 1, 2 or 3 >diagonal lines over them to indicate tremolo Isn't that what ~ is for? A roll? > > e) !horizontal(! and matching !horizontal)! (after the fashion of the >crescendo) to draw a general horizonal line over a group of notes, usually to be >used with some accompanying text (eg position indicator: "^IV"!horizontal(! ... >!horizontal)! > > f) Since chords are allowed arpeggiation markers (vertical wavy line, with >or without direction arrows) would also be useful !arpeggio! !arpeggioup! >!arpeggiodown! for directionless, up and down. > > g) String indicators (usually a number in a circle) !(1)! etc > > h) Right hand finger indicators. For the guitar the letters p,i,m,a,e are >used so perhaps !rhp!, !rhi! etc (As a guitarist I prefer to use a notation >package to do guitar music, >rather than abc which I use generally only for folk songs/tunes, but as >people are setting other types of music these may be useful). > >These may seem too many, but as pointed out, programs can just ignore accents >they don't recognise/wish to process. On the other hand the >Bartok/snap-pizzicato accent is included and is probably less commonly used than >some of these >others (glissando for instance). > > >3. The thing I find most desirable to include which is not here is varied >note head types , for me most often the cross-head 'x' to indicate unpitched >spoken words or noises (taps, bangs) , but diamond note heads are used to show >harmonics in guitar music. These could be included as formatting options: > > %%notehead x or %%notehead cross > %%notehead / or %%notehead slash > %%notehead <> or %%notehead diamond > %%notehead [] or %%notehead square > %%notehead + or %%notehead plus > %%nothead standard % to reset to normal Triangles/inverted triangles/circles, x-in-circle, white heads, black heads... And different heads on the same stem - how? > >For my purposes this wouldn't be too bad - spoken sections in songs tend to >be only a few bars long. Other mechanisms would be possible. > >(4.Oh and the page numbers in the pdf file are currently incorrect!) > imo these (and many others) are going further than abc ought to. It's not a general-purpose music notation standard: for that MusicXML or NIFF or another completely new one should be used. Bernard Hill Braeburn Software Author of Music Publisher system Music Software written by musicians for musicians http://www.braeburn.co.uk Selkirk, Scotland To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
