On Jan 21, 2004, at 6:16 PM, Phil Taylor wrote:
Not just a proposal but a working implementation in use in BarFly for many years. John's suggestion would work. Given the macro definition:
m: Pn = ^3/24n
Hm. I will go look at the docs. But that is just for ornament, yes? And just for notes? It is not a general text macro facility. And not in the ABC "standard"? It is imperative that it work in the key signature for Jack's proposal.
Not that I think that a particularly useful approach, since as Jack says, musicians who use these pitches don't think of them as fractional; we really should not adopt something which is totally at odds with existing musical practice.
I'm not sure how it is at odds with practice -- since no one traditionally practices playing music by looking at the ABC notation :-)
Here is an example of how one might use the fractional feature (this is a cartoon, not a proposal for a macro feature):
D-Bayati (has a slightly lower E-half-flat and a B-flat) K:C _6/10E _B
True. Not pretty, but someone must define the tone if it will ever be rendered to MIDI. Now if I had macros I could have a whole library:
#define HIJAZ_D C _9/10E ^F _9/10B #define BAYATI_D C _6/10E _B #define HUSSENI_D C _/E _/B #define foo _6/10 ;slightly flatter than half #define foonote _6/10E ;slightly flatter than half E
Then:
K:BAYATI_D
DED2 EFE2 FFG ; song in BAYATI.....
K:HUSSENI_D ; modulation to husseni
GG FEDDEF ; (notice the value of the e-half-flat changes slightly but
I don't even need to think about it)
ABD CD fooEF =EF ; an accidental
-or-
ABD CD foonoteF =EF ; an accidental
The first part of Jack's proposal -- about how to build up the keys
out of smaller components (in Arabic the tri/tetra/pentachords are called ajnas)
I have to think more about. It can't be done just with macros...
-Jas
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