Frank wrote:

 >In a way the present definition of the Q: field represents a
 >perversion of everything music is about. Notated music (standard
 >notation or abc or whatever) exists mainly to aid the performing
 >musician, but the Q: field as it is today seems to assume that
 >the music is to be played by a computer.
 >
 >My idea is to have ABC present the tempo in a way that is as
 >useful as possible to the live musician, and *then* add some
 >kind of mechanisms for helping the computer interpret it as well
 >as it can.

Isn't it just the other way around?

We cannot deny that it is often convenient (if not artistically
valuable) to have a computer play music from abc notation. That's
one of the reasons abc was invented. The computer must have a way
to know how fast to play, and the Q: field is the answer. Nothing
in the 1.6 specs addresses the question of how to communicate
tempo to a live musician, which we seem to agree is a different
problem. The answer to this will necessarily be an extension not
present in 1.6.

BTW, I don't suppose we'll ever find a consensus as to how to
represent the metronome markings in Beethoven which were almost
certainly derived from a faulty mechanism and are routinely
ignored in modern performance.

  ______      /\/\/\/\
 <______>     | | | | |  David Barnert
 <______>     | | | | |  <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
 <______>     | | | | |  Albany, N.Y.
 <______>     \/\/\/\/

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