>>>>> "John" == John Chambers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Laura> I reported it to Michael Methfessel over a year ago. And
Laura> it's high on my list, and I would think on the list of
Laura> anyone who uses words.
Let me clarify this; after we had the discussion of this on abcusers,
I started looking more closely at the way printed music does melismas,
and concluded that mixing hyphens and underscores was in fact not
common (although at least one reference book considers it the correct
way to notate a melisma on a not-final syllable).
The more common way to notate this is to use a hyphen after non-final
syllables and an underscore after final syllables.
However, the hyphen in ABC does not seem to me to correctly indicate a
long melisma.
The normal way to use a hyphen to extend a syllable is to place
hyphens at a constant distance between one syllable and the next. In
ABC, you have to associate them with notes, which if the note values
vary, they will be at unequal distances from each other.
So the issue that is high priority to me isn't really changing the way
hyphens and underscores look when used together, although that would
be one possible solution to the real problem.
The real problem is finding a good way to indicate a several-note
melisma which occurs on a non-final syllable of a word.
I will be happy to hear from anyone who thinks they have one; I don't
think I do.
Here are the three things I've tried:
The na�ve thing, where you use a hyphen to indicate to the
singer that the word continues, and underscores to indicate to
both the singer and the typesetting program how many notes are
sung on this syllable:
^F4 G4 G4 A4 G2 F4 E2 D4 E F G4 ^F2 "C"G8 z4 g4 g2 f2 e2 d2 c4\
w: _ jo- yed, thou late- ly hast en- joy- _ _ _ ed. She that come, deere, would say,
What abc2ps does with this is at:
http://world.std.com/~lconrad/music/morley/hart/allparts.pdf
The solution I came up with when I was "publishing" the Morley
Canzonets for 2 voices, which is to use the - under one note,
and the _ under the others:
G c > B A G F2 E F/ G/ A/ B/ c2 C2 z c d f > e d \
w:wyne, sops in wyne are a - _ _ _ _ deal- ing, spice cake sops in wine
The abc2ps version of this is at:
http://world.std.com/~lconrad/music/morley/arise/allparts.pdf
The solution I'm trying at the moment, which is to use hyphens
under each note to indicate melisma on a non-final syllable
and underscores to indicate one on a final syllable.
e6 d2 c2 A2 c3 d e4 A4 z2 A B c d e c f2 d e f d f2 e4 A4 A3 B
w:O- cu- lus non vi- - - dit, nec _ _ _ _ _ _ _ au- - - - -- ris au- di- -
which is typeset at:
http://world.std.com/~lconrad/music/bicinia/oculus/allparts.pdf
I consider all of these solutions unsatisfactory.
John> They both mean the same thing, but are represented on paper
John> differently. So there's no apparent meaning added to using
John> both.
I think they mean very different things: the hypen means "the word
isn't finished yet", and the _ means "Continue singing the last
syllable printed on these notes as well as on the one it's printed
under."
John> But this is obviously not true for at least one user, and thus likely
John> not true for some class of musicians.
Musicians who sing instead of just playing instruments.
John> The reason I'd predict that this would be low on a lot of people's
John> priority list is that I'd guess that most people would be equally
John> baffled by why you would use them together.
I don't actually insist on using them together. The reason the
problem of representing melismas in vocal music is high priority for
me is that it seems to me to be one of the more amateurish features of
the typesetting I'm getting out of abc2ps.
--
Laura (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] , http://www.world.std.com/~lconrad/ )
(617) 661-8097 fax: (801) 365-6574
233 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02139
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