In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, John Chambers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes >Bernard Hill writes: >| In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Richard Robinson >| >Like you, I don't have very strong opinions here, it's not a thing >| >I've found a huge need for. But uses like [A4ce]2 would seem to be >| >fairly clear to understand, convenient to type, and consistent >| >with the rest of the language; it's a thing I'd try if I needed to >| >express such a thing. >| >| But what does it MEAN in notation terms? You are not allowed to have >| different length notes on the same stem in standard notation, so the >| [A4bc] would itself have to mean A4 at stem down and [bc] at stems up. >| Is this what's intended? >| >| You only have stems up and down if you have 2 parts on the 1 stave, and >| this does not fit in with abc anyway in terms of [] notation. > >You obviously haven't seen enough music notation. ;-) > >It's not at all unusual in some sorts of music to have both >a solid and an open note head on the same stem. Standard >staff notation is obviously very limited in what can be >done with this, but combining a quarter and a half note on >a single stem is easy, and isn't at all unusual.
Yes it is. I've only ever seen it on string parts, eg beginning of final movement of Beethoven 5th. My reference books are quite explicit: two notes of different lengths cannot share a stem. If you must have them sounding at the same time then one has stem up, one down. > >With L:1/8, the notation [A4ce]2 is a case that works. The >resulting A8 is a whole note, so it doesn't have a stem. So >the [c2e2] would be two quarter notes on the same stem, and >the A8 would be a stemless whole note drawn directly below >them. The simpler [A2c]2 would be a half-note A and a >quarter-note c on a single stem. These aren't at all odd or >unusual notation. > >Of course, it's very easy to come up with examples in abc >that have no representation in staff notation. You can't >mix quarter and eighth notes on the same stem. > >But in any case, this is a secondary issue. The simple case >of [Ace]3 is easy, and some people would like it to work. I would agree with that. But I would also expect abc to make [A3ce] into the same thing, ie only need the length on the first note of the chord for the reason I gave above. >Similarly, the [ce]>[Bd] case is very useful, and already >works with some abc software. > >In fact, are there abc programs that reject [ce]>[Bd] now? Possibly. I don't :-) Bernard Hill Braeburn Software Author of Music Publisher system Music Software written by musicians for musicians http://www.braeburn.co.uk Selkirk, Scotland To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
