Re: [tablatures] Baroque lute tablature

[Laura Conrad <lconrad@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>>>>> "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.

    Trevor> OK, I've rambled on long enough.  What I want to know is
    Trevor> whether I should continue with this.  I'm confident we can
    Trevor> produce acceptable output from standard notemode input,
    Trevor> but I'm equally confident this would be of little use to
    Trevor> lutenists without tabmode input.

I agree.

    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.  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.

    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.

-- 
Laura   (mailto:lconrad@xxxxxxxxxxxx)
(617) 661-8097	233 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02139   
http://www.laymusic.org/ http://www.serpentpublications.org

Mom got to be quite a rabid fan, though...Everything I did was
sensational as far as she was concerned.  Now my father, as far as
*he* was concerned I never got a hit.  If I got a single, my mother
would scream, "Willie's hit a triple."  And Pop would say, "Ach, the
guy should have caught it."

Willie Kamm, quoted in "The Glory of their Times" by Lawrence S. Ritter