Re: Arabic music half flat accidental shape

[Hans Aberg]

On 17 Jan 2008, at 14:57, josephHarfouch wrote:

> I am a fairly new user of Lilypond, and this is my first post. I am  
> very
> excited to have come across this wonderful product, and I am very  
> grateful
> to its creators. I am excited in particular about its potential use to
> notate Arabic music, given the flexibility that its offers.
>
> I have seen some discussions in this forum regarding the expansion of
> microtonal music that Turkish music, for example, would make use  
> of, and
> some of these discussions also mentioned Arabic music. Just for  
> interest, I
> think an expansion of notating microtones is not really relevant  
> for Arabic
> music as it is traditionally notated up till now, as there is  
> usually no
> attempt in Arabic music notation to define intervals smaller than a
> semitone. There are however intervals in some Arabic maqams (or  
> modes) that
> are somewhat between a tone and  a semitone, and these can be  
> indicated by
> using half-flat and half-sharp notation. The precise quality of all
> intervals, whether tones, semitones, or medium intervals,  is  
> determined by
> the maqam (mode) name and/or by listening to the music. Since lilypond
> already offers a way to notate half sharp, and half flat, it  
> already can be
> used without modification to notate Arabic music. There are a  
> couple of
> things however, that I would like to be able to do. I'm not sure  
> whether
> they are available, but I just don't know how to use them, or if  
> they might
> be developed in the future. If they are not available, and it would  
> not be
> too difficult or costly to add them, then I would be interested to  
> help
> sponsor them.
>
> 1) The shape of the half-flat symbol that I see in Lilypond output  
> looks
> like a reversed b, which I see in Turkish pieces but not in Arabic  
> music.

There is more than one system in use in Turkish music; see
  http://www.musicstudies.org/Abjad_JIMS_071203.html
for a comparison of two relation to 53-equal temperament.

> A
> half flat in Arabic music is displayed as a b but with a slash  
> across (It is
> hard to describe the shape precisely). Is it possible to access such a
> symbol, and if not, is it possible to add it in the future?

Is this what they use on
  http://www.maqamworld.com/
They also use some accidentals with up-/down-arrows.

> 2) This second request is not as important, but it just would be  
> nice to
> have, if it is easy to implement.
>
> It would be nice to be able to omit the name pitch on the \key  
> command, and
> let lilypond default it.
>
> for example instead of saying \key do \minor,
>
> to say instead
>
> \key \default \minor
>
> or even better
>
> \key \minor
>
> and then have lilypond default to the notename pitch of do, rather  
> than
> issue a syntax error. Lilypond would determine the tonic that by  
> knowing the
> associations between modes and default tonics, or simply defaulting  
> to do
> when that is not available.
>
> This does not seem like a very useful thing in Western music where  
> most
> scales are thought of as modulations of common scales, but in  
> Arabic music
> there are lots and lots of modes to be learned and remembered which  
> are not
> always grouped by modulation. The name of the mode or a group of modes
> usually implies the name of the tonic.

The name "tonic" usually implies harmony, so I think a word like  
"final", "finalis", might be better.

> In this case it would to nice to
> define this once in a file, and let the software manage it. For  
> example when
> an Arabic music is labelled as Maqam Bayati the tonic is assumed to  
> be RE
> (D), and the clef key markings reflect this. If the mode is  
> modulated from
> its default tonic to another note say sol (G), only then the music is
> labelled as Bayyati on sol and the clef markings are adjusted.

If I look at Maqamworld <http://www.maqamworld.com/>, the Bayati in D  
has a flat on B. How is this written in notation? Is the Bb written  
as a key signature, or is it always written as a temporary accidental  
within the piece? Of it is Bayati in G, what is the key signature.

Otherwise, have you looked at the church modes? If you take the C  
major scale, there is a church mode with a final for each of the  
scale degrees, indicating the final(is).

And in Persian music, one uses koron and sori pasted into the Western  
key signatures. So if this would be used with Bayati in D, it would  
have a key signature consisting of Bb plus a E-halfflat.

  Hans Åberg