Re: Terminology of baseMoment, beats, groups

[Urs Liska]

Am 11.11.2017 um 12:30 schrieb David Kastrup:
> I find "grouping" without "beat" fine.  I could have been responsible
> for the terminology in the code (pretty sure I wasn't, but it matches
> the terminology I use quite better).
>
> Now I have certainly not gotten an English music education, so can
> someone who did chime in?

I haven't either, but I can refer to Gould's terminology. While we all 
agree that no single engraving book provides "the truth", it is surely a 
good idea to match her terminology, if only to be able to communicate 
with users/developers of other programs.

She says: "Divisions of a beat are beamed together in all metres." and 
states 2/4, 6/8, and 2/2 as metres of 2 beats. (p. 153, "Beaming 
according to the metre")
3/2, and 9/16 are given as examples of metres of 3 beats.

So it's clear that her terminology matches that of beatStructure, "beat" 
= "beat" and "baseMoment" = "Division of a beat".

The example I gave is also present in her examples (p. 155), other 
examples of metres with beats of different lengths include 5/16 (2+3 or 
3+2) and 7/8.

So I think we can safely say the terminology of beatStructure is correct 
(or at least acceptable).

"Beat" also refers to what a conductor would do. the 3+3+2 from my 
example would be given as three "beats" by the conductor. Maybe your 
perception of "beat" as necessarily regular comes from the fact that in 
German we use "beat" too, but usually referring to specific styles that 
are limited to regular beats ...