From: David Rogers <address@hidden>
To: Lilypond-User <address@hidden>
Subject: Re: How to lengthen dynamics hairpin
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2004 15:31:02 -0700
On Aug 24, 2004, at 2:27 PM, Bertalan Fodor wrote:
I was thinking about it and I think the problem is general with dynamics.
I suppose they shouldn't start and end where they do now. They start too
late and end too soon. The latter is more important. Some hand-engraved
score could help deciding this. Generally I feel that the < and > mark
should include the noteheads they belong to.
Looking at just a few hand-engraved scores (all from before 1970, including
Universal Edition, Gutheil [from Russia], Peters, and Boosey & Hawkes), it
seems that the rules for the dynamic marks < and > are complex and/or
flexible. They seem to be placed so that they start at the left side of the
first notehead, and end at the right side of the last notehead, *IF* the <
> are closest to the heads of the notes and not the stems. If they are
closest to the beam of a beamed group of notes, they seem to coincide with
the length of the beam. But if the < or > are nearest the stems of notes
that don't have beams, then they extend through the plane of the heads of
the notes and don't stop at the stems. Usually.
If the < or > are just before a bar line, and are intended to continue only
to the first note of the next bar, they go well past the end of the last
note of the previous bar, but not quite as far as the bar line.
*Sometimes*. Other times they do cross the bar line for only one note. And
they also seem often to be "harmonized" graphically with whatever happens
to be next to them - sometimes they will coincide with a sharp rather than
the notehead, for example, presumably only because it was the closest
element; or they may be shortened or bent to accomodate other markings.
Some of the < and > signs do not follow these formats at all - instead,
presumably intended as more "general" signs, they cover whole bars or
several bars, and are obviously placed without regard to note positions.