I've put a first version of an ABC player, ABZWEB1.EXE, on my
website. It will play in 12 tone equal temperament or extended
diatonic (21 note just intonation scale). It's still a bit crude,
and there may be a few 'bugs' left in it. It doesn't handle
bagpipe notation (because I don't know it), and it doesn't do
Parts:, and it won't do double flats or double sharps. That last
is trivial in 12 tone equal temperament, but takes 14 more notes
in just intonation. It's not hard to do, but I've never run
across any double sharps or flats in the old popular tunes and
traditional tunes I'm interested in, and double flats and double
sharps don't seem to be worth the effort. [You can, however,
flatten a note that's already flatted on the key signature, or
sharpen one already sharped on the key signature.]
I've added an optional J:specification for what's on the key
signature. With 3[ or ?]# (or ^), or 5[ or ?]b (or_), or 0 (for
no sharps or flats), it will use this and the keynote in the
K:specifcation to determine the scoring mode. If you add the
keynote you want after the number of sharps or flats (or 0) in
the J:specification then it will use that as the keynote,
determine the scoring mode from these, and completely supersede
the K:specification. [The K:specification will be processed and
displayed, but nothing of it will be used.]
The reason for the program was to try stressed note-keynote-mode
coding, and calculating the mode number from an ABC of the tune
(see file CODEMETHD.TXT) and I think it will do that for over 98%
of all old popular and and folk tunes correctly, but I can't
guarantee it will work for all tunes. I haven't figured out what
to do about coding circular modes yet, so I just note them as
circular and give the final note they actually end on.
The program will not work if the 8 stressed notes require one to
go past a change of key or timing, and it's not yet set up to
handle many exotic timings [Percy Grainger's tune for "Lord
Melbourne" in JFSS #12, 1908, is in mixed timing of 3/16, 5/16,
7/16, 8/16, 2/8, 3/8, 5/8, 6/8, 7/8, 8/8, 9/8, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4,
5/4, and 6/4 time. He has elsewhere has 4/8, 11/16, 12/16,
doublets, triplets with rests in them, and some other exotics.]
5/4 is the only exotic one my program will handle as yet, and I'm
not certain that taking whats in the 1st and 4th quarter note
positions as the stressed note will work for all 5/4 tunes. [It's
said to be common in Southeast England for traditional singers to
hold the first note of 4/4 time so as to stretch the tune to 5/4,
and in a region of the Southeast USA it's common for singers to
hold on both the 1st and 3rd in 4/4 time to stretch it to 6/4.]
Minor successes, "Dusty Miller" in 3/2, 3/4 and 6/4 all have the
same code and mode. "The wawking of the Faulds", #6 in volume 2
of 'Orpheus Caledonius',1733, is scored as G minor in C| time,
and the flute score in the Appendix is A dorian in C time. Both
code as pi3 (pentatonic) with the same stressed note code. There
are several others, but this has already gotten longer than I had
hoped for.
The program requires the file MODETABL.TEXT, and XNME420.DLL
which are already on my website. There are 180 modes in the mode
table ranging from 3 to 11 note scales, but you may run across
some I haven't seen, and you'll get a blank for mode designation.
Please let me know if you have problems with it.
Bruce Olson
--
Old English, Irish and, Scots: popular songs, tunes, broadside
ballads at my website (no advs-spam, etc)- www.erols.com/olsonw
or click below A href="http://www.erols.com/olsonw" Click /a
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