>>>>> "John" == John Chambers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
John> | On Tue 18 Dec 2001 at 01:00PM +0000, Erik Ronstr=F6m wrote:
John> | > Consider "standard" music notation:
John> | > My theory is that once upon a time, the repeat sign consisted of two
John> | > dots (:), and always coincided with a bar line.=20
John> Anyone have any actualy history of this?
The earliest repeats I have facsimiles of are in John Dowland, in the
early 17th century. Morley, printing about 10 years earlier, writes
out all repeats. Most of the pieces I know from much earlier than
that don't have explicitly notated repeated sections, although of
course performers may well have decided to repeat things.
When there is a begin and end repeat together, Dowland draws it as a
double bar line with some number of dots between 2 and 6 on each side
of the double bar. This is true both in parts which have other bar
lines and in parts which are otherwise unbarred. The ones with
barlines use the same sign at the end of the piece, that is with dots
on both sides of the double bar. They do not put a repeat sign at the
beginning. The parts that are written without barlines don't bother
with either the end repeat at the end of the piece or the begin repeat
at the beginning of the piece.
Where there is a begin repeat in the middle of the piece, for instance
with an ABB structure, the end repeat is as described above, but often
the beginning of the repeat is indicated by a squiggly cross above or
below the note to be repeated to, and not by anything that looks to us
like a repeat sign at all. This is not necessarily associated with a
barline at all.
When there is alternate music for the first time through, there's a
double bar separating that from the note that ends the piece on the
second time through. There doesn't seem to be a formal idea of a set
of notes that might constitute a second ending, although a modern
transcription often ends up writing it that way.
--
Laura (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] , http://www.laymusic.org/ )
(617) 661-8097 fax: (801) 365-6574
233 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02139
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