Christian M. Cepel wrote: >Are shapenotes Renaissance? I thought they went back to plainchant >notation. (this is probably why I only barely passed Music history last >sem and prolly won't this sem)
Well, square- and diamond-shaped notes are certainly used in Gregorian notation, but this notation also groups notes together into neumes, so it's a little more complicated than just setting the note shapes. (It can be done automatically though, as BarFly does.) Shape notes have probably been used in many systems throughout history, the best-known being that used in the Sacred Harp, where the shape used for the note head indicates its scale position, making it easier for semi-literate singers to sight-read. Again, this could be done automatically as a program option, which would not require any change to the abc. MusicXML lets you specify note shapes on an individual basis, which would not be a good idea in abc as it would make the abc unreadable. Phil Taylor To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
