On Thursday, 2 September 1999, John Sankey writes:
> You know, Jan, you are making me think precisely about things
> I've done instinctively for half a century - it's tough!
That's ok. We don't have a schedule, we just must get it right.
> Composers almost invariably use beaming as an indication of
> articulation, but editors usually use it to increase score
> readability. The two can be quite different. Your current rules
> are an expression of "readability" rules, and do pretty well at that.
> And, I think "readability" rules are the best default for Lily.
Hmm, I don't think that I really understand. What would a typical
example be, where the editor would beam differently from the composer?
> JDS: Let me try a better approach than my "consider 8. to be in
> the 1/16 class".
>
> Usually, 8. is associated with 1/16 articulation i.e. sharper
> than 1/8. So, if your example continues as
> 32 32 8. 8 8 8 8 8 8 |
> then normally it would be beamed as
> [32 32 8.][ 8 8][ 8 8 8 8 ]|
> (This is common in Scarlatti, by the way, as an accentuation of
> pulse technique.)
>
> But, if you have a romantic piece, you might have the equivalent of
> <d'8 a8. f4 d2>
> to indicate a fadeout to bass and _this_ 8. is obviously not to be
> treated as a 1/16th.
>
> So, it might be cleanest to say that a beam containing short and
> long notes is usually best terminated according to the rule
> applicable to the shortest.
Sure. But, how do you propose the 8. should be addressed (which is
what started this discussion)? Only by time4_4beamAutoEnd and
time4_4beamAutoEnd_12 (and, the manual overrides without the
'timex_x' prefix), like we have now?
> That is, the autobeamer should look at everything currently in the
> beam, rather than just at the duration currently being processed
> (at the potential end of the beam, if you like).
>
> Comments, anyone?
Mabye we should have better doco; this is what autobeamer does,
already. If it didn't do these things, wtk1-fugue2, and the
cello suite would look horrible (there was a bug in .5 or .6,
where some beams did look horrible, btw :-)
> JN: We could change, and say:
> time4_4beamAutoEnd1_8 = 1/2
> means: only 1/8th
> and
> time4_4beamAutoEnd_8 = 1/2
> means: 1/8 3/8 (not 2/8==1/4)
> JDS: My personal feeling is that this is more complex than is
> appropriate. Musical pulse is usually simple - we are trying to
> determining solely from the notation what the pulse is, to
> reflect it in the beaming. But, I'm speaking as a musician here,
> not as a programmer or graphic artist.
Ok.
Jan.
Jan Nieuwenhuizen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> | GNU LilyPond - The music typesetter
http://www.xs4all.nl/~jantien/ | http://www.lilypond.org/
