On 01 Jul 2001 18:56:05 +0200, Jean-Francois Moine wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I have some questions about the accents and other signs as defined in
> the ABC draft:
>
> - !open!, !snap! and !thumb!
> Could anybody tell to me what are the glyphs and the implementation
> rules for these signs?
!open! is an open string or harmonic. It is written as a small circle
above a note, kind of like a "0" but an actual perfect circle.
Sometimes open strings are denoted with actual "0"s (e.g. !0!e), but
this notation is also used.
!snap! is a "snap" or "Bartok" pizzicato. It looks like a medium-sized
circle with a line starting in the center of the circle (or sometimes
slightly lower), traveling vertically downwards until it has intersected
the circle and gone a bit further. A vague attempt at an ASCII art
representation:
___
/ \
/ \
| |
| | |
\ | /
\_|_/
|
|
!thumb! denotes that a note should be played with a cellist's thumb (on
the left hand). I'm not entirely sure what this one looks like (you
should probably ask a cellist), but from what I remember, it looks sort
of like the "snap pizzicato" sign except that the line starts at the
bottom of the circle, not in the middle. Also, the circle may be a zero
(i.e. more elliptical and thicker at the sides than at the top or
bottom), although again I'm not really sure, and it probably depends
upon the particular publisher.
> - !invertedfermata!
> Shall this sign be drawn above or below the staff?
Phew, dunno about this one. :) Probably below. However, I figured that
all fermatas, whether above or below, should just be !fermata! (or just
H in some programs).
This also brings up the question of decorations and text on rests and
bar lines -- this is frequently encountered in sheet music with fermatas
and things like "G.P." (grande pause). Shall we officially allow this
in the standard, do you think? :)
> - !repeatbar!, !repeatbar2!, ...
> I think it is a kind of '%' meaning the previous measure shall be
> repeated, but I don't think it is an accent. Instead, it should be
> indicated as a regular music sign.
> Could it be 'R' or 'r' (repeat)?
> The length indication, when present, would give the number of
> measures, just like the multi-measure rest ('Z') I implemented in
> abcm2ps.
Making it a letter sounds sensible to me. I'd make it a capital "R" for
a whole bar, R2 for two bars, etc. Then we can reserve lowercase "r"
for less-than-a-bar repeats, such as:
M:4/4
L:1/16
Acfc r4 r4 r4
if we decide to implement them. The only problem is that I think some
programs may use "R" for "roll" already, so it might be a little
confusing.
> - extensions
> Many people ask for new signs, mainly text ones. I see 3 main kinds
> of these last ones:
> - dynamic signs, drawn below the staff, in a bold font
> (!mp!, !fp!, !(f)!, ..),
> - dynamic signs, drawn below the staff, in an italic font
> (!Cresc.!, !Cresc - - en - - do!, !Poco riten.!),
> - repeat indications, drawn above the staff, in a normal font
> (!al Coda!, !FIN!, !ad lib.! - these ones may be set as guitar
> chords),
> but it exists many other extensions (!arpeggio!, !pinc�!, ..).
> Does any ABC translator already handle such extensions?
Speaking of which, are !Ped! and the "take off the pedal" mark (sorta
looks like an asterisk) in the standard? If not, perhaps they should be
added.
Also, I noticed that all the dynamics except for !mp! were in the
standard -- probably just an oversight, but it ought to be corrected
before the standard becomes official.
- Eric
--
Eric Galluzzo <><
Software Developer, eInnovation, Inc.
http://members.home.com/engalluzzo/
http://www.einnovation.com/
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