[MEI-L] figured bass

[Eleanor Selfridge-Field]

Dear all,

Christine raises a useful point. While it is easy to say that a "style" can determine the rendering, the data file may need to accommodate two symbols for a non-standard rendering, e.g., "sharp" and "<graphical system to be used for sharp>". For sound apps, one would also need either a tuning system indication (e.g., "meantone") in the header or value [long list of possibilities for systems of auditory indicators, such as "frequency").

Corresponding issues arises with ornaments, their signs, and their execution styles. With ornaments there are multiple note objects. MuseData and Humdrum both offer useful models for dealing with these issues.

For both f.b. and ornaments, the range of graphical styles is open-ended. Usage varied from publisher to publisher, composer to composer, year to year, and sometimes (it seems) work to work. (Grove lists more than 250 ornaments for French harpsichord music.) 

The most efficient way to deal with Christine's question is to look at both fig. bass and ornaments in a similar way. Unicode is unlikely ever to have assignments for all graphical ornament renderings.

It is also unlikely to have all graphical renderings of fig. bass, since within fig. bass the means of indicating figures like 6# are variable. We have noticed that the order in which multiple-component figures are presented in a source (6#, #6) is variable. 

Note that fig. bass parts are prone to error in the figural signs, so there are instances in which one would ideally have a system that indicates what occurs in the source and what the correct figure in the source should be.