> Second question: I have a Chinese book of flute tunes, written out
> much like abc, but in numbers, not letters. If I could read the Chinese
> introduction, I probably wouldn't have to ask but...does anybody here
know
> anything about this notation? Is it particular to the flute, or is it a
> general music notation?
Replying to John and Bert's suggestions that this is either tablature or
solfege, I think it's the latter, and the numbers indicate the notes of
the scale, from 1 to 7. (With the occasional puzzling zero.) At least
the tunes seem to sound ok with that interpretation, tho that's
hardly a foolproof test! They use western sharps and flats for
accidentals, so I don't think they write out cross-fingering. (There are
a number of western symbols mixed in: time signature, tuplets, and
trills, for instance, and even some western characters, e.g. f, pp, mf,
etc. No key signature needed---these are six-hole flutes, no
keys, and they come in sets, so you just pull out another flute to
change keys.) Time values seem to be indicated by note-position within a
measure. On the other hand, there are single and double underlines, and
various shapes of dots above and below the notes, and occasional dots
following notes. I think the dots above the note indicate a second
octave, but I'm not sure of the rest.
Toby Rider writes:
> Scan a copy of the instructions and send them to me. I can read a
>moderate number of characters and my mother is fluent. So we can tell
>you what it says.
>
Excellent! It'll take me a day or so to get within
range of a scanner, but I'll try the first couple of pages.
Cheers,
John Walsh
To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
