Re: [tablatures] Baroque lute tablature

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Laura Conrad wrote Sunday, November 15, 2009 5:01 PM



"Trevor" == Trevor Daniels <t.daniels@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:


   Trevor> This has some obvious difficulties, the main one being
the
   Trevor> lack of information about how accidentals should be
   Trevor> represented when outputted in a standard staff.  Not
sure
   Trevor> what to do about this.

It seems to be the same problem as MIDI -- there isn't really a
concept of a key signature in tablature, so to translate tablature
to
standard notation you need to know the key signature as well as
the
raw notes.


Yes, exactly.  Although, as you explain below, knowing
the key signature is not enough when the music modulates
through several keys.  Part of the problem with MIDI is
that the key signature is often not actually specified.


   Trevor> I'm also confident tabmode input can be provided
without
   Trevor> too much difficulty for Baroque lute, using letters to
   Trevor> represent frets, but how should accidental indications
be
   Trevor> made,


People who use tablature more than I do can correct me, but I
don't
think there is such a thing as an accidental in tablature.

So when you input the tablature, the user who is going to want to
translate the tab to standard notation is going to have to give a
tuning table, and they should also expect to give a key signature,
and
maybe some other spellings.  But I really don't think it's as hard
to
guess the spelling of an accidental from the key signature as most
of
the people who write MIDI to standard notation programs try to
pretend.

In other words, I think a key signature of A minor should imply
that
the note between G and A is spelled g# and not Ab, and maybe there
should be some input syntax to let users correct that assumption
if
there's some strange excursion from A minor into Eb major, but
really
for most baroque music, that doesn't happen.


Bach??  But perhaps he didn't write much in tablature.


And of course, if the
key is C major, the program probably does need some guidance about
whether it's Ab or G#.

So we need not only a tuning table and a key signature but also a
spelling table for accidentals, which for non-major modes would
include a sharped seventh by default.  Dorian modes should
probably
include a flat sixth by default.  That is, a piece with a D dorian
key
signature is likely to slip into G minor, with Bb's all over the
place.


Thanks Laura.  This is very helpful and seems to be the
way to go.  As we proceed we shall need to discuss the
precise form these tuning tables and spelling tables.


   Trevor> and would this be of any use to other forms of fretted
   Trevor> instruments?

Viol players historically used the same kind of tablature as lute
players.


I was thinking of a wider range of instruments.  If we make
each feature required for Baroque lute tablature individually
controllable and set up those required by a Baroque lute in
an init file they could also be used in other set-ups.  Features
like using numbers or letters for frets, style of right-hand
fingering, style of decorations, etc.  This seems to be the
way to go, rather than having a monolithic Baroque lute tab
state.

Trevor

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