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<p>Hi, Micah,</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The generic grouping element in MEI is <annot>. The name may be a bit of a misnomer, but the presumption is that if you're creating a group of some sort, then you want to say something about it.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>There are several approaches one can take to your question about brackets:</p>
<p> </p>
<p>1) Use the @startid, @endid, and @plist attributes to identify the targets of the annotation (the affected notes, that is) and the @type attribute to classify the two kinds of annotation (ligature and coloration in the original source) and then draw the
appropriate brackets in the rendering phase.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>2) "Draw" the brackets needed using <line>, using @type to classify the lines. Because the brackets will consist of multiple <line> elements, however, using @type isn't optimal. The more round-about, but better option is to use <annot> to group and classify
the <line> elements.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>3) Use <symbolDef> to define the brackets you need, then use <symbol> to place the brackets relative to the notes. This part of the MEI schema has not been exercised much, so I anticipate you'll find it to be inadequate regarding the placement of the symbol
with respect to different sets of notes. What's lacking is a way to "parameterize" <symbol> and <symbolDef>; in other words, the ability to use the same symbol definition in different contexts. However, I'm not discouraging you from this path -- in fact,
it would be very helpful if you tried this out and reported on how well it worked. That would provide an opportunity to improve MEI.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Hope this helps,</p>
<p> </p>
<p>--</p>
<p>p.</p>
<p><font size="2"><br>
__________________________<br>
Perry Roland<br>
Music Library</p>
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<div class="PlainText">University of Virginia</div>
<div class="PlainText">P. O. Box 400175</div>
<div class="PlainText">Charlottesville, VA 22904<br>
434-982-2702 (w)<br>
pdr4h (at) virginia (dot) edu</div>
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