Re: ottava & polyphony

[David Raleigh Arnold]

On Monday 08 March 2004 05:27, Mats Bengtsson wrote:
> David Raleigh Arnold wrote:
> > On Thursday 04 March 2004 05:14, Mats Bengtsson wrote:
> >>The question is what is the correct typesetting practice.
> >>As a musician, how can I know if the ottava applies only to
> >>the upper voice or to the full stave
> >
> > That's easy.  It only applies to the voices that are marked.
>
> LilyPond of today just writes 8va --------- above the staff, which
> makes it impossible to distinguish what voice it applies to.
> Can you please describe the notation you have in mind.
>
>     /Mats

Not a problem, except in the midi, because it would be assumed to only
apply to the top voice if there were more than one voice in the staff,
especially if it were guitar music.

The problem with the midi is the same old one of midi having staves and
not voices.  Chords are permitted on a midi staff but only one
independent voice, because there can be no unisons on a midi staff, just
as there are none on a midi keyboard.  So a midi staff is not really a
staff; it is a voice.  It is not hard to work around that, as long as
you know that you have to watch out for it.

Often, there used to be something like "armonici in v. sup.- - -" or
"8vados harmonicos en la parte superior- - -" in guitar music.  It is so
obviously intended in guitar music that such qualifications are seen
less and less.

8va below the staff is supposed to lower.  A guitar player would never
take it that way if there were more than one voice.

So the thing that would make all things possible is to be able to
have 8va both above and below a staff.

If there is still no interest in applying 8va to voice, which would take 
care
of most cases, then I could do a separate midi version on two staves
when I typeset that piece on one staff.  Any stringed instrument is
going to need this sometimes, because the harmonics are a different midi
instrument, and because sometimes there are real unisons, which caused
me to have to do it before.  It is not very onerous, because I can use
the same notes for both versions.  daveA

-- 
It's not that hard to understand the lesson of Viet Nam.  Never never
never never defend one tyrant against another, because The worst thing
that can happen is you might win.  The *Gulf* war was worse than Nam.
D. Raleigh Arnold dra@ (http://www.) openguitar.com address@hidden