Richard Robinson writes: | On Wed, Nov 19, 2003 at 09:26:40PM -0000, Phil Headford wrote: | > I may have missed this from an earlier discussion; apologies if so. | > Real, working musicians in bands need to be able to choose (often in a matter of seconds) a tune to go with the next dance. | > With a repertoire of hundreds (or a thousand or two) of tunes, the characteristics of each tune or set are not always easy to bring to mind. | > So, many of us have little 5 or 6 page lists, which give some of our favourite tunes aranged by the following criteria: | > | > Tune type (polka, jig, reel, etc) | > Key (and modulations) | > Bar length | > | > So which field in ABC do I use for bar structure? I have been putting this info into a J: header field - eg 32=8*2+8+8 for Galopede, 40=8*2+12*2 for Herbert Smith's Polka, | > 40=8*2+8+8*2 for Waterloo Dance. Some might think this academic, but for practical musicians, it's the second thing you want to know about a tune. | | It's a good question. I've wished, several times, that I'd done such a | thing from the start. And maybe one day I'll get round to it, but in the | meantime I've occasionally cheated, with things like "R:32-bar Jig"; | which is better than nothing, but not the Right Way.
I've often thought of this, too. It does seem like these two could be combined in a form like: R: Jig 32=8*2+8+8 This would have the advantage that programs looking only for the basic rhythm's name would find it where they expect it, and programs wanting more details could look at the rest and try to make sense of it. OTOH, the modifier first makes more sense in English and many other languages. Thus, I have a number of tunes with rhythms like: R: Boda-polska I like to include the hyphen to separate the modifier off from the basic rhythm, though Swedes would of course not use the hyphen. In any case, I'd also have the criticism that I often want to know more about the internal rhythm of measures, so I can find tunes that truly match. Thus, single and double jigs often don't work well together, for the same reason that marches and reels don't work well together. I have a "strathspey" directory that includes tunes used under that name at Scottish dances, but it's a jumbled mixture of true strathspeys with shottishes and airs. They come from a lot of sources, and the borderlines are fuzzy, making it difficult to label them so that you can select just one kind of tune. I'd imagine that most rhythmic terms in most musical styles have the same sort of problem. I don't know how to handle it well. -- O <:#/> John Chambers + <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> / \ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
