Re: [frogs] Re: Numeric note heads for singers

["pounderd@xxxxxxxxxxx" <pounderd@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>----Original Message----
>From: c_sorensen@xxxxxxx
>Date: 10/01/2010 15:39 
>To: "Ian Hulin"<ian@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Cc: "pounderd@xxxxxxxxxxx"<pounderd@xxxxxxxxxxx>, "lilypond-user@gnu.
org"<lilypond-user@xxxxxxx>, "frogs@xxxxxxxxxxx"<frogs@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subj: Re: [frogs] Re: Numeric note heads for singers
>
>
>
>
>On 1/10/10 4:52 AM, "Ian Hulin" <ian@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Hi Carl and everyone,
>> 
>> This looks a good idea in principle, but you've got to address what 
I call the
>> tonic-sol-fa/solfeggio problem.
>> You have to consider all of these (and I may have missed a few)
>> 1. What is your base-level tonic?
>> 2. what mode you are in (\major \minor \dorian etc.)?
>> 3. => what key signature do you currently assume?
>> 4. are you adopting \relative-type rules  - when do you decide on 
an octave
>> shift for the base tonic?
>>> 1. A good test for this would famously difficult singing range of 
the U.S.
>>> national anthem 
>> 5. How do you notate modulations when a piece is changing key, an f 
in the key
>> of c needs to become an f# to prepare for a modulation into g, but 
you aren't
>> quite ready to adopt the new key signature (and therefore reset the 
tonic)
>> yet?
>> 6.  
>> I suppose you could do some of this with mark-up stuff
>> 1. \key c  -> ^"tonic=c" or
>> 2.  
>> 3. \key c \major -> ^"tonic= c major"
>> 4. whatever \key is set as
>> 5. you could use the \relative type idea,  f4 c'4 notates as 4 1' 
on crotchet
>> note-heads 
>> 6. Add the possibility of accidental  f# or b flat being notated as 
4# or 7b
>> on note-heads, or 4^"#" 7^"b" (except use the flat-sign for b) 
>> Just some things to think about, HTH.
>
>Thanks for the thoughts.  These are all potential problems for 
complex
>music; I doubt any of them are problems for shape-note music.  Shape-
note
>music is used for hymn singing from the shape-note hymnbook; there 
aren't
>modulations in these songs[1].  Further, shape-notes are based on the 
major
>scale, rather than minor or dorian.  The whole idea of shape notes is 
that
>regardless of the key, the intervals between the various shapes are
>constant.  Now, this idea is not enforced in Sacred Harp singing, 
because
>there are only four shapes in sacred harp, but it is in Aiken heads, 
where
>there are seven different shapes.
>
>Bottom line, I don't think we need to worry about the difficult 
stuff, and I
>don't think we need to worry about the octavation.  I think 1-7 would 
be
>very helpful.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Carl
>
>[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape_note

Currently with the shape note heads, the tonic is set by the choice of 
\key command. In \key c \major, c is the tonic. In \key d \dorian, d is 
the tonic. If you want it to work sol-fa style, then you would use \key 
c \major for both and it would work.

Sol-fa handles modulation by printing the old scale-degree in 
superscript before the new one. There isn't really enough room in the 
note-heads to do this and we would begin to confuse two different 
notation systems. I think that a proper sol-fa context would be needed 
to deal with the complexities of that particular notation system.

Carl - I'm happy to go ahead with this if you still want me to, but 
I'm a bit concerned now that no-one would use it and that the original 
requester was actually looking for something quite different.

Could you try running the lily source below which I think provides a 
simple means to the same end and could be turned into a snippet? If you 
then still think it would be useful to have this automated, I'll 
continue where I left off.

\version "2.13.11"

{ \easyHeadsOn
  \override Voice . NoteHead
     #'note-names = #(vector "1" "2" "3" "4" "5" "6" "7")
  \relative c' { c d e f g a b }

  \key a \major
  \override Voice . NoteHead
     #'note-names = #(vector "3" "4" "5" "6" "7" "1" "2")
  \relative c { a b c d e f g }
  \relative c' { a b c d e f g }
  \relative c'' { a b c d e f g }

  \key a \minor
  \relative c' { a b c d e f g }

  \key d \dorian
  \override Voice . NoteHead
     #'note-names = #(vector "7" "1" "2" "3" "4" "5" "6")
  \relative c' { d e f g a b c }
}



2009: A year in review - http://www.tiscali.co.uk/2009


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