> From: Bas Luttik <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 14:28:23 +0100
> I would like to typeset a Big Band arrangement using PMX. It is a
> large score with 14 staves and the PMX-manual says that the number of
> staves is limited to 12, but that this is under user control. Moreover
> I have a problem with the number of slurs that are open at the same
> time. PMX complains at a certain point that I defined the 10th slur
> and then MusixTeX stops with an error. I could not find in the manual
> that the number of slurs is limited to 10.
>
> I have two questions:
> 1. How can I increase the limit of 12 staves to 14?
By modifying the PMX-source.
> 2. Is it possible to increase this limit of 10 slurs?
Yes. By modifying the PMX-source.
But in addition(!) MusiXTeX is limited to 12 instruments and 12 slurs
which are "open" in parallel.
For 14 staves you have to use a maximum of 12 instruments; but an
instrument can have up to 4 staffs. So you may group some of "your"
instruments into one MusiXTeX-instrument, which is supported by PMX.
The slur problem can be solved by using simple slurs "\slur", but
that's a MusiXTeX solution, because up to now PMX does not use simple
slurs. You may use simple slurs within PMX as Inline-TeX. That's easy
for short slurs over notes of same length (in all voices :-(). Use
\\def\z#1{{#1}}\ for hiding local modification e.g. of the transpose
register. Then you can replace "... ( c45 d e ) ..." by
"... \z{\slur{!'c}eu2}}\ c45 d e ...". "2" means a slur with length
of 2 \noteskips which is the distance from the "c" to the "e".
But there is (nearly) no chance to have more than 12 slurs open
at a line break, because simple slurs cannot go over linebreaks. Nearly
means, you can modify musixmad.tex or write a new MusiXTeX extension,
which allows more than 12 slurs/instruments/beams/...
And this is the next problem: beams are limited to 12 beams open in
parallel. Again this may be solved by modifying musixmad.tex.
But then it's possible, that you reach the next limit: the TeX-dimensions
which are limited to 255. I'm too lazy to find out how many dimensions
are needed for a slur or for a beam.
Another possibility could be to use two PMX-sources. But then you have
the problem that you can't get a "correct" score. You may synchronize
(with a limit) the linebreaking of the two sources, but nevertheless the
barlines of both scores will not align.
And if your arrangement has not only many instruments but in addition
many bars or movements the you have to consider to break the whole
thing into bunches of pages (one PMX-source generating some pages),
which then can be concatenated with "dviconcat".
You can find this solution in the edition of Bach's Art of the Fugue.
Just yesterday I uploaded a new version of this piece now including
Contrapunctus 12 (8 voices). The PMX source and all the(DOS) procedures
are on the server: http://www.gmd.de/Misc/Music/scores/ look for "Bach",
"Kunst der Fuge", Urtext.
-- Werner
