[MEI-L] graceful beams

[Maja Hartwig]

Dear MEIers,

while working on a revised version of the MusicXML to MEI stylesheets, we noticed a situation that is not absolutely clear in MEI, or that could be improved by better documentation. We have an MusicXML file that has beamed chords with a leading grace note each. Those grace notes are not part of the beam (look at colored sample). While the old converter produces a single <beam> element which holds all chords, but also the grace notes (beginning with the second). This results in the rendition you see in the black&white sample. 

<grace1/>
<beam>
	<chord/>
	<grace2/>
	<chord/>
	…
</beam>

Of course MEI allows to avoid the beam element and use a beamSpan, which connects all chords to a beam from an external point, leaving out the grace notes. However, this markup seems slightly more complicated. 

<grace1/>
<chord1/>
<grace2/>
<chord2/>
<grace3/>
<chord3/>

…
<beamSpan members="chord1 chord2 chord3"/>

(everything above is pseudo code, MEI is not working exactly like this)

While we could simply stick with the beamSpan solution, I wonder if there is such thing as a grace note being member of a regular beam at all? Of course grace notes may be beamed, but only amongst their kind, correct? If this would be the case, we could simply define in the guidelines that grace notes do not attach to a beam drawn by a parent beam element. However, this solution would mean that there wouldn't be a way to attach it to that beam unless we come up with a new solution for that issue. What do you think? Have you ever seen a grace note attached to a regular beam? Do you expect that there is one out there? Don? 

Best,
Johannes

(having captured Maja's machine…)


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