Frank writes:
| So:
| The ABC idea of specifying the mode, not just the key signature is a
| good one and ought to be kept.
| However, as Bryan says, it doesn't always work, so we need the
| K:[accidentals] system in addition.
| I don't think it should be too difficult to keep both possibilities.
Yah; there's no chance of dropping the tonic and mode. The only
question really is whether the new standard should officially
sanction the explicit key signature in addition.
Well, there is one little point that could lead to a long, raging
argument: My implementation in abc2ps allows the mode and the
accidentals. Someone has already ventured the suggestion that maybe
you shouldn't use both. I'd suggest allowing both, because although
it isn't strictly necessary, it is sometimes useful. My favorite
example is "K:Amix=g", which is doubly redundant, but nonetheless
useful. I'd prefer to see this than "K:^f^c=g" so that searches for
"Amix" will succeed. The "=g" is a bit of redundancy that is often
seen in Scottish dance music, for the benefit of musicians who don't
know about (or believe in ;-) anything but major and minor. I could
also see klezmer musicians preferring "K:Dphr^F" to "K:_B_e^F",
because this corresponds to the conversational "D freygish" in
Yiddish. I'm sure that others can think of more examples.
|
| I'd be very happy if ABC transcribers resisted the temptation to use
| "esotic key signatures" for European harmonic minor tunes, though. It's
| bound to cause confusion sooner or later.
Good advice. The general European "minor" does have both the 6th and
7th steps variable, so the usual key signature makes perfect sense. I
have heard (from some classical musicians) the suggestion that, for
example, G minor should actually have the ^F in its signature. Their
reasoning is that, although both =F and ^F occur, it's the ^F that is
the note used in chords. But I think they just say this as a sort of
intellectual exercise, and aren't seriously thinking that anyone will
ever do it.
There is a lot of klezmer music that uses the classical minor mode,
and even the people who like the non-classical key signatures will
use them for tunes that are "really in minor". This is especially
true if there are transitions to the relative major. So it wouldn't
be at all surprising to see a klezmer collection with all of:
K: Bb (B flat major)
K: Gm (G minor)
K: D^f_B_e (D freygish)
K: C^f_B_e (C misheberach)
These are four very closely-related keys, and a tune in one will
typically have brief excursions into any of the others. The first two
should generally not have the ^f in the signature. The last two have
the ^f as the normal scale (and harmonic) note, so it belongs in the
key signature.
One of the advantages of online music is that searches and analysis
of the tunes are possible. To make this actually work, it helps if
the tunes have K: lines that are as accurate as possible. I've even
used "no-op" key changes, such as from K:G to K:Em or K:Ador, so as
to make lookups work better. This may be carrying it a bit far, I'd
admit, but I've found it useful.
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