Frank Nordberg writes:
| I think it's time to discuss modes and key signatures again.
...
| We need a way to notate key signatures without implying a root for three purposes:
|
| 1. To be able to notate as correctly as possible music that doesn't fit the
| modal system.
| 2. To be able to notate non-standard key signatures.
| 3. As a safe way out for transcribers (humans or computer programs) that are
| not able to discern between the various modes.
One minor quibble, which deals with a marginal issue that I'd like to
mention: I think the "without implying a root" isn't the main thing
here; it would be better to say "without stating a mode".
Of course, with case 3, you want to be able to omit both the root
(aka tonic) and the mode when it's not practical to get them right.
But in cases 1 and 2, the ideal would be to encourage people to give
the tonic if they know it, plus the key signature.
One of the advantages of ABC over traditional staff notation, which
carries over to computerized music (plain text vs GIF or other image
formats) is that computerized lookups become possible. Classical key
signatures don't indicate the tonic, but this isn't a problem because
you can't search printed music anyway except by laboriously leafing
through pages of music. But with ABC, it's now possible to ask the
computer things like "Find me a jig in the key of G."
So we want to encourage giving the tonic, while not requiring it. We
want to encourage giving the mode, while providing a way to give just
the signature if the mode isn't easily determined for some reason
(such as a non-western scale or an ignorant transcriber).
So my "marginal" point: The current standard says that if no mode is
given, major is assumed. It has been suggested that in my extended
K:<tonic><mode><signature>
syntax, the same default should apply. I think this is a bad idea. In
my implementation in abc2ps, what I did was to say that if only the
<tonic> is given, with no <mode> or <signature>, then major is
assumed. This is a subtle point, but I think it has significance.
To see why, consider a musician trying to transcribe a tune in what a
middle-eastern musician would call "E hejaz" or a klezmer musician
would call "E freygish". I'd write this as
K:E^G
That is, the tonic is E and the signature consists solely of a G
sharp. (It could obviously be K:^g if you prefer.)
Note that there is no mode stated. If the mode defaults to major, the
result will be that this will appear with four sharps, as if K:E had
been written. The musician will, of course, be baffled by this, and
will probably conclude that the software is broken (or doesn't yet
implement key signatures). The ^G seems to have been ignored.
Now, to the musicological expert, there's no puzzle here. You need to
include a mode to cancel the major default. What mode do you use? To
the expert, it's obviously "phr". But to the other 99% of the
musicians in the world, it's not obvious at all. Even worse, what's
needed to cancel the major default is different for every tonic.
Most musicians will never be able to learn or remember this.
However, they will quickly learn that there's another solution:
K:^G
This gives the desired signature. If you don't tell the software the
tonic, it can't add an incorrect default major key signature. And we
have lost the tonic and the ability to do our lookups.
So the effect of making major the default mode is that we will see
more ABC without a tonic in K: lines. But if we use the rule that the
default is major only if no <mode> or <signature> is given, then
K:E^G will work exacly like you'd expect, and we've subtly encouraged
musicians to include the tonic when they know it.
(Now if we could only think of a way to do something about the ABC
tunes that have K:G for K:Em or K:Ador or K:Dmix. ;-)
To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
