"Simons, Don" wrote:
>
> 1. For letter groups, should default horizontal position be
> centered (\ccharnote) or left-justified (\zcharnote)?
my immediate answer is centered position. A check in some printed scores
confirms that.
> Should it be tweaked
> depending on stem direction, so that for up-stems it is indexed to the
> middle of the notehead while for down-stems it is indexed to the stem
> itself?
>
I vote for the last solution. The above mentioned printed scores seem to
behave like that.
> 2. All the same questions apply for hairpin starts and hairpin endings.
>
The Henle (*) urtext edition of the piano works by Robert Schumann has
hairpin stats left aligned while the endings mostly are right aligned.
For both apply the reservation: unless a clash with other symols occurs.
> 3. If there is both a letter-group and a hairpin start or stop on the same
> note, should the position of one and/or the other be automagically tweaked
> to avoid a crash? If so, which, the hairpin, or the letter-group? Should the
> tweak be horizontal or vertical?
>
I looked at some Brahms urtext editions from Henle. They have a
preceding letter-group left aligned with the starting note and a few
milimeter's space between the letter-group and the start of the hairpin.
The opposite case is not very common. But when it occurs an ending
letter-group is right aligned.
> 4. If there is both a letter-group and a hairpin start or stop on the same
> note, should the vertical positions be made the same by default? Without
> any special checks, they could come out differently if the hairpin's
> vertical position is controlled by the note at the other end of the hairpin.
>
The Henle editions seem to clearly favour vertically alignment of a
leading letter-group and the following start of the hairpin. But for
"leaping" music like that of Brahms and Schumann many exceptions are
necessary.
> 5. Syntax for hairpins. I am now using "D<" and "D>". They act as toggles:
> the first one starts it, and the next one in the same line of music ends it.
> There is a slight incompatibility with this use of ">" and "<". They have
> already been used to trigger horizontal tweaks of accidentals. (But ">" is
> also used as an ornament.) It would be possible to use "c" and "d" instead
> of or in addition to "<" and ">"
>
If the highly intuitive symbols "<" and ">" can't be mixed op with the
other uses of these symbols (and how could they when preceded by the
keyword D?) I don't see any reason to take "c" and "d" into use.
> 6. I'm certain to use the default position as the reference point for
> user-defined vertical and horizontal tweaks, since that's the way it is with
> ornaments. But I could allow the user to give an absolute position. For
> example "Dp-2-1" will mean to move the "p" down 2\internote and left one
> notehead width from the default position. But "Dp=-2-1" could mean to
> position the letter 2\internote below the bottom staff line and one notehead
> width to the left of the left edge of the note. Then "Dp=" would be
> equivalent to "Dp=+0+0". Would that option be useful enough to put it in?
>
If the *relative* positioning is influenced by transposing the score
then I guess a fixed vertical position might be quite useful in some
cases.
> 7. Some may want symbols vertically centered between staves using \zmidstaff
> etc. I could make it an option to switch the vertical default to this. Is
> this worth it?
When I look at the above mentioned piano music scores I find this an
obvious option in such cases.
> Possible syntax "Dp*" and "Dp*-2-1". Should it be possible
> to make this the global default, e.g. with "AD*" or maybe just "A*"?
>
Yes, for the same reasons.
> Comments?
In the preceding mutex discussion expression indications like
"ritardando", "pi� lento" etc. printed within the score have also been
drawn into the picture. In the Brahms and Schumann piano scores they
often occur in combination with hairpins in a way that would justify a
separate option for those. I suggest using the keyword "E", for example
"E'una corda'". They should be treated in the same way as the dynamics
letter-group with respect to positioning but printed with a smaller
non-bold italic or slanted font.
(*) IMHO Henle scores are suitable references for typesetting standard.
Regards
--
Christian Mondrup, Computer Programmer
Scandiatransplant, Skejby Hospital, University Hospital of Aarhus
Brendstrupgaardsvej, DK 8200 Aarhus N, Denmark
Phone: +45 89 49 53 01
