Can't say much about hairpins except that I looked into implementing them at
one time and got completely stuck due to some limitations of MusiXTeX
itself. I can't recall the exact details but I think it was impossible to
specify the symbol terms of its starting and ending positions; instead it
would have been necessary to calculate the length of each hairpin and enter
it at the start of the symbol and I found the "look-ahead" requirement led
to horrible programming difficulties.
I will mention, however, that there are some undocumented simple dynamic
marks in PMX. The command is "D" followed by one of the following:
"pppp","ppp","pp","p","mp","mf","f","fp","sf","ff","fff","ffff",
followed by optional signed vertical (integer) and horizontal (decimal)
shifts. Use at your own risk, and your mileage may vary.
I could possibly be influenced to add up to three other combinations of up
to four letters each. I don't want to try dealing with hairpins until and
if it becomes possible to specify one in each line of music, indexed to its
starting and ending notes (like is now possible with slurs and beams).
--Don Simons
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HowardGilbert [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2000 2:45 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: PMX - \zcharnote
>
> Hi,
>
> To write dynamics in PMX I use the following MusiXTeX defs based on
> \zcharnote:
>
> \\def\Dpp#1{\zcharnote #1{\pp}}\
> \\def\Dp#1{\zcharnote #1{\p}}\
> \\def\Dmp#1{\zcharnote #1{\mp}}\
> \\def\Dmf#1{\zcharnote #1{\mf}}\
> \\def\Df#1{\zcharnote #1{\f}}\
> \\def\Dff#1{\zcharnote #1{\ff}}\
> \\def\Dpp#1{\zcharnote #1{\pp}}\
> \\def\Dicr{\icresc}\
> \\def\Dtcr#1{\zcharnote #1{\tcresc}}\
> \\def\Dtdecr#1{\zcharnote #1{\tdecresc}}\
> \\def\Dtxt#1#2{\zcharnote #1{\it{#2}}}\
>
> My skill in MusiXTeX is not great but from reading the manual I would
> expect
> that, using for argument #1, "J to a" for treble(G) clef voices and "A to
> C"
> for bass(F) clef voices would put the dynamics at the correct vertical
> level
> in a multipart score.
>
> I find this works fine for simple dynamics "pp - ff" but gives problems
> with
> hairpins. When I write (for a treble clef voice) something like:-
>
> "\Dicr\ some notes \Dtcr M\ more notes /" or
> "\Dicr\ some notes \Dtdecr M\ more notes /"
>
> the hairpin does not always go where I'd expect.
>
> Sometimes I think the hairpin position is being set taking the argument #1
>
> as relative to the notes in the current bar but I'm not convinced of this.
>
> Please, what am I doing wrong?
>
> --
> Best wishes,
> Howard.
> (A.H.Gilbert, Thornaby, North Yorkshire)
