Re: Why is midiInstrument a Staff property

[Bernd Warken]

On Sat, Mar 03, 2001 at 11:47:26AM +0100, Jan Nieuwenhuizen wrote:
> Peter Chubb <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> > Why is midiInstrument a Staff property rather than a Voice property?
> 
> Just a pragmatic choice.  MIDI can specify only one instrument per
> track; and a staff is translated to a MIDI track.
> 
> If you want different instruments for two voicess, you must put them
> on different staffs, ie, you probably need a dedicated midi score
> definition:
 
That is very bad.  So you are forced to write different source files
for graphical and midi output.

For example, take J.S.Bach's Art of the Fugue written for four voices,
usually notated in two staffs for keyboard.  It is common to play
it on piano, organ, but also for string quartett.  With making
midiInstrument a voice property, it is possible to use the two-staff
score for all kinds of instrument combinations.

By usual speaking, a voice is identified as an instrument in music,
whereas staffs are only an arbitrary notation concept that is not
inherent to the music.

Bernd Warken <address@hidden>