Stefan Haller wrote:
>
> M-Tx handles melismas automatically based on the beams and slurs; this
> is great, but not flexible enough (unless I'm missing something) in
> cases where you have to override this default handling (and I often
> have).
>
> Consider the following example:
>
> ================================
> Style: Singer
> Meter: C
>
> %% w2i
> [ c8 d1 e1 ] [ d8 e1 f1 ] e2 |
> L: A-men
> ================================
>
> Now of course I want the first syllable of `Amen' to be a melisma of 6
> notes, and the second syllable should be on the final half note.
>
> The first thing I tried to achieve this is putting a slur around the
> first six notes (I don't really want this though -- I often need
> melismas *without* slurs). This doesn't work at all; M-Tx complains
> about:
>
> Melisma starts with slur but ends with beam: ERROR on line 5
>
> no matter in what order I put the ( ) and [ ]. This looks like a bug to
> me.
>
Yes, the error message is a bug. :-/ It goes onto my list.
The correct PMX code is generated, though.
>
> Putting in \beginmel\ and \endmel\ as inline TeX doesn't work either,
> because they interfere with the \endmel commands that M-Tx puts in
> itself.
>
>
> What I end up doing now is this:
>
> ================================
> Style: Singer
> Meter: C
>
> %% w2i
> [ c8 d1 e1 ] [ \nolyr\ d8 e1 f1 ] e2 |
> L: A-men
> ================================
>
> This works quite well in this simple example, but it is a pain when
> there are very long melismas. (Defining \let\nl=\nolyr\ helps some, but
> not much.)
You have several possibilities.
--1----------
Style: Singer
Meter: C
%% w2i
( c8 d1 e1 d8 e1 f1 ) e2 |
L: A-men
-------------
This produces all six notes slurred, and grouped as two beamed sets.
--2----------
Style: Singer
Meter: C
%% w2i
m2200 [ c8 d1 e1 d8 e1 f1 ] e2 |
L: A-men
-------------
This produces all six notes unslurred and beamed as one set.
You may want to restore common meter afterwards with m4400.
--3----------
Style: Singer
Meter: C
Options: i
%% w2i
( [ c8 d1 e1 d8 e1 f1 ] ) e2 |
L: A-men
-------------
This produces all six notes slurred, and beamed as one set.
I don't recommend using the i option as a habit, but because
of the spurious error message it is required here.
--4----------
Style: Singer
Meter: C
%% w2i
[[ \beginmel\ c8 d1 e1 ] [[ d8 e1 \endmel\ f1 ] e2 |
L: A-men
-------------
This produces the six notes unslurred, beamed as two groups of three,
and belonging to just one melisma. In general using the [[ (( {{
constructions turns off the M-Tx automatic melisma generator and leaves
everything up to you. If you have a lot of this I recommend
-------------
[[ MR1 \beginmel\ M c8 d1 e1 ] [[ d8 e1 MR2 \endmel\ M f1 ] e2 |
-------------
after which 'MP1' equals '\beginmel\' and 'MP2' equals '\endmel\'.
These four cases cover all possibilities I can think of. The last one
does the same as your solution with \nolyr, but is probably less
of "a pain when there are very long melismas."
> I suggest adding a new pair of commands to M-Tx to begin and end a
> melisma; unfortunately I can't think of any characters that could be
> used for this, but maybe someone else can. If { } were not already
> taken, I would suggest to use them like this:
>
> { [ c8 d1 e1 ] [ d8 e1 f1 ] } e2 |
>
> with proper nesting of any beams or slurs that might occur inside such a
> group.
I'm a bit reluctant to invent a new notation for something that is not too
cumbersome. Instead, I propose adding the above solutions to the 'Annotated
Examples' section of the manual.
Dirk Laurie
