Re: Figured bass spacing problem

[Mark Hymers]

On Thu, 24, Jul, 2003 at 06:20:02PM -0400, David Raleigh Arnold spoke thus..
> 6
> 5 6
> 
> possibly mean?  Either you have the interval of the 6th or you don't.

No no no!

I'm talking about layout - that's for two different fingerings:

(pretend there's a bass clef at the start)

,-------____---------------------------------,
'      |    |                                '
'------|----|--------------------------------'
'      |    ,                                '
'------,---X---------------------------------'
'     X                                      '
'--------------------------------------------'
'                                            '
'--------------------------------------------'

      6
           6
      5

(Note I'm not intending the gap between the 6 and 5, it's the
limitations of ASCII art); I'm trying to show the 6 in the middle.

Rather than

      6
      5    6

which places the 6 far too far away from the stave to be readable.

Having said that, I've checked various editions and some do this:

      6    6
      5


And if the bass is above the stave (as in the OUP edition of Continuo
Playing According to Handel) some do this:

      6
      5    6

which makes sense, i.e they are stacked so that the numbers start
closest to the stave.

However before suggesting anything I'm off to the Uni library tomorrow
to look in the music section and try and find some definitive
references.

Hope this makes more sense.

Mark

-- 
Mark Hymers <markh at linuxfromscratch dot org>

"'I regret nothing?'  That's not a song, that's an idiots charter."
     Andy Hamilton, Old Harry's Game