[MEI-L] [Extreme] non-standard key sigs

Byrd, Donald A. donbyrd at indiana.edu
Sat Sep 6 20:38:52 CEST 2014


Perry, you say, w/r/t double flats or sharps in key signatures, "The 
examples provided by Don
(http://www.informatics.indiana.edu/donbyrd/CMNExtremesBody.htm#pitch) 
may be the only ones, I don't know." Actually, I don't give any 
examples _in key signatures_ there. But reading it a rang a bell, and I 
discovered this in a 2009 file of material for my Extremes list:

---- BEGIN ----
Key signatures of up to one triple-flat + six double-flats = 15 normal 
flats (!) appear in Dumitrescu (2007), pp. 141-170. However, it's not 
clear this qualifies as CMN. (contributed by Hook, who comments: "This 
is a modern realization of a 16th-century motet. The original 
manuscript was written in a circle. The author doing the reconstruction 
argues that the proper way to perform it requires adding flats at each 
repetition, and this is where that brings us by the third page.")

Dumitrescu, Theodor (2007). Constructing a Canonic Pitch Spiral: The 
Case of  _Salve Radix_. In _Canons and Canonic Techniques, 14th-16th  
Centuries_, ed. Kateligne Schiltz and Bonnie J. Blackburn (Leuven:  
Peeters), pp. 141-170.
---- END ----

I'll add it to the Extremes webpage. But I'm not sure how seriously MEI 
should take it! ...Say, don't we know Ted Dumitrescu from Dagstuhl??

--DAB


On Fri, 5 Sep 2014 21:55:59 +0000, "Roland, Perry D. (pdr4h)" 
<pdr4h at eservices.virginia.edu> wrote:
>> [---- SNIP ----]
>> Since <keyAccid> allows encoding any of the accidentals in
>> data.ACCIDENTALS.EXPLICIT, it seems we can already strike a nice balance
>> between ease and properness by understanding <keySig> as an indication
>> of visual appearance. In this situation, @key.sig and @key.sig.mixed
>> would help determine the pitch class of following notes, and <keySig>
>> would determine the written appearance of the key signature.
>>
>> Notably, this solution doesn't account for logical key signatures with
>> double accidentals.
>
> Neither Read nor Gould explicitly address the possibility of key
> signatures requiring double flats or sharps.  Gould (p. 94) writes,
> "[a]ny *sharp or flat* may be selected as a key signature to alter
> all octaves of the selected pitches".  Her list doesn't include
> double flats or sharps. Read (p. 140) says double flats and sharps
> must be written wherever they're needed, implying that they are not
> to be included in the key signature.  Likewise, Stone's Music
> Notation in the Twentieth Century doesn't include any examples of
> double flats or sharps in key signatures.  The examples provide by
> Don
> (http://www.informatics.indiana.edu/donbyrd/CMNExtremesBody.htm#pitch) may
> be the only ones, I don't know.  In any case, as evidenced by Gould
> and Read's statements, such key signatures stretch the limits of what
> a "logical" key signature is to the breaking point.  Currently, they
> can be encoded using keySig/keyAccid, but not @key.sig -- we may just
> have to live with this limitation for a!
>  while.
>
>> I'm sure there's something else I'm missing too!
>
> We must be missing the same thing.  :-)
>
> --
> p.
>
>>
>>
>> Christopher
>>
>> On 09/05/2014 02:49 PM, Roland, Perry D. (pdr4h) wrote:
>> >
>> > Comments below--
>> >
>> > --
>> > p.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>
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--
Donald Byrd
Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellow
Adjunct Associate Professor of Informatics
Visiting Scientist, Research Technologies
Indiana University Bloomington




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