Second fret display in french tablature
Since I can't find an option to change this, I post this as a feature request - if already implemented, please be so kind as to give me a hint: While some lute composers used a 'c' to indicate the second fret in french lute tablatures, some preferred to use an 'r' instead. Don't ask me why, but reproducing those scores would be even more satisfying when using exactly the same letters...
Comments
I suspect that a hurriedly written c may look like an r :)
Which then has been slavishly copied by a musicologist.
In reply to I suspect that a hurriedly by ChurchOrganist
You are right jschwalm.
This is not due to a hurriedly written, but to avoid confusion between c and e. So, effectively, there is often a r instead of c for the second fret in french tab.
In an other hand, is there really a risk of confusion between c and e with the installed Font on the Nightly? Maybe, but at this moment, there is nothing really obvious to me!
In reply to You are right jswwalm.This by cadiz1
It is indeed not an r at all, but a form of c used to prevent confusion between c and e:-
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute/tab-intro.html
In reply to It is indeed not an r at all, by ChurchOrganist
A form of c (used in the Renaissance) rather than as an r, as we understand it today. Okay ChurchOrganist.
The question remains the same. Will there the risk of confusion between the second and fourth frets by using font installed on Nightly and future 2.0? For my part, I do not really think. Other opinions?
In reply to A form of c (used in the by cadiz1
I do not think we need to discuss which of the two letters (the two forms of the letter 'c') is better suited; since it is a historic fact that both are common in lute literature, both should be available in MuseScore, in order to make historically accurate editions possible.
In reply to I do not think we need to by jschwalm
Perhaps the way forward would be to produce a different font with the form of c which looks like an r?
The end user can then select the preferred font for the project being worked on.
In reply to Perhaps the way forward would by ChurchOrganist
Sounds reasonable to me, although I cannot really assess what would be the best way to implement this feature. As a user, I would be totally happy with the solution you propose, anyway!
In reply to Perhaps the way forward would by ChurchOrganist
I go up this topic.
For I now regret not having enough considered the question. So true it is that the "c" shaped "r" is very common in the literature for lute.
In his latest message, jschwalm writes "Thanks for the hint!".
What it about exactly? Thanks for the help! :)
In reply to I do not think we need to by jschwalm
I agree. My own principle in making lute music editions is not so much in achieving historical accuracy as in making them as readable as possible to a modern lutenist. That is why I believe English scribes used the r-like letter, as the confusion between e and c would be even more problematic in handwritten music. But to a lesser extent, this is also true of printed scores, where the r-like c was the practice in England in the early 17th C. That is why I favor the r-like c. It's all about making life easier for the modern performer.
--Sarge
In reply to It is indeed not an r at all, by ChurchOrganist
Thanks for the hint!
Please note an important detail: it is not actually true -- as it seems to emerge from comments above -- that the r-like shaped symbol is an alternate form of a more c-like shaped symbol (as SMuFL also seems to think, but to my feeling SMuFL got several details wrong in the field of historic scores).
Rather, depending on the time, the area (and also the printer!), there were different writing -- and printing -- styles. For instance, as XVII c. England is explicitly quoted above, the 1605 Windet print of Dowland's Lachrimæ (which is one of the sources for the "Renaissance"-style font currently used in MuseScore) used a very c-like shape:
NOT FOUND: 1
Approximately in the same period, similar styles were also used in France, like this example from Bataille's Airs de différents autheurs..., Paris 1616:
NOT FOUND: 2
Later on, the r-like shape gains usage, roughly while engraved plates were replacing moveable type prints. For instance, this example from Gaultier's Pieces de luth..., Paris 1670:
NOT FOUND: 3
In still later tabulatures, the r-shaped symbol went out of fashion and the c-shape went back in use, like for instance in this example from Raccolta d'ariette francesi ed italiane... by G. Merchi, Paris 1760:
NOT FOUND: 4
Even discounting the inevitable simplifications and schematisms of such a super-abridged excursus, it should be clear that notations are semantic systems which tend to an internal consistency.
It would be technically possible to allow mixing and (mis-?)matching shapes and symbols from different systems, but this is an approach I do not agree with (in my perspective, this is SMuFL's "original sin", at least as far as historic scores are concerned) and I am not going to implement it. The nice of open source is that, anybody willing to implement it, may.
Historic accuracy may not appeal to everybody, I agree, but historic accuracy is only part of the matter: internal and stylistic consistency are equally very important for readability. Then, what I plan to do, sooner or later, is to increase the number of fonts available, adding as first thing a font suited to late XVII c. scores, exampled initially on Gaultier and de Machy sources, which will of course include the r-shaped 'c'.
In the meantime, any suggestion to improve the existing fonts, along the lines described above, is also welcome.
Thanks,
M.