[mei-neumes-ig] Style name

Tue Jun 21 16:33:46 CEST 2016

Hello everyone,
It's been interesting to follow these discussions.
I don't want to muddy the waters here, but I wonder if we can assign two
<styleName> elements? (if this element is the one that will describe the
neumes at the level of the notational type, like "St Gall" or "French")

We might want to (at some point) identify notational forms according to
their graphical/scribal features (instead of or in addition to the more
traditional geographical distinctions), or perhaps you're already planning
this and I just haven't kept up. (If so, my apologies!)

For example, "St Gall" neumes in the early books look a lot like "Messine"
or "Laon" neumes (the latter lack the significative letters, but the
ductus, size of the pen-nib, "swirliness" and other features are quite
similar). Those same neumes show up in so-called "Klosterneuburg" notation
in the 12th century, but by the 14th century the "Klosterneuburg" neumes
are more "Gothic" in style, related perhaps to other "German" neumes.

In my experience, palaeographic research in the 20th century generally
separated neume styles according to their geographic origin (accompanied by
geographic names, like "French", "Klosterneuburg", "Laon," etc.), but the
computer will be able to spot identical shapes in books from a wide range
of places in Europe.  It could be that there is sometimes more of a
connection between scribal styles of a particular *time* than of particular
places. There is no doubt that some notations are specific to a particular
place (Benevento, for example), but the notational style could still be
assigned to a category of what the neumes look like (which would
revolutionize the nomenclature of palaeography! ... No, I'm not sure I want
to tackle that, but when all the individual neume-shapes are itemized and
classified, I'm sure there will be duplicates in other notations and
someone will take it on one day).

If the <styleName> element isn't the right place for a new name to denote a
category of shapes that look similar, is there another tag where this could
be entered?

To be clear, this "scribal" identification I am suggesting is at the level
of the notational style overall ... comparable to how we say "square
neumes," "Gothic neumes", "German neumes", "Italian neumes", etc. but not
tied to a geographical location. (For instance, "square neumes" is already
perfect!  It describes what it looks like, and the Franciscan mss from
Italy show the same types of neumes and graphical features as mss from
France with that notational style.)  I can see such a description being
applied at the level of the individual neume within any set of neumes from
any place, and then connections across previously distinct notational
styles will become more obvious.

(and with enough samples the computer could determine whether or not the
shape is similar enough and IT can uncover the connections between
"Messine", "Klosterneuburg, "south-German" and "St Gall" neumes!)

Sorry to be so long in describing this.  It seems like the right time to
consider the larger question of notational styles and how we perceive them,
esp. since we are looking forward to branching out and working with
manuscripts from France (Paris lat 12044 and 15181 -- with very different
notations!) and perhaps some from Austria.

Debra

----------------------------------------------------
Debra Lacoste, Ph.D.

| Cantus Database | http://cantus.uwaterloo.ca ||
| also https://uwaterloo.ca/margot/margot-projects/cantus ||
| University of Waterloo, Sessional Instructor ||

| dlacoste at uwaterloo.ca |
| debra.lacoste at gmail.com |

On Mon, Jun 20, 2016 at 4:55 PM, Roland, Perry D. (pdr4h) <
pdr4h at eservices.virginia.edu> wrote:

>
> Hi Andrew,
>
> The <styleName> element has been present since the earliest versions of
> MEI, although v. 2010-05 is when it got a camel-cased name.  It can occur
> anywhere transcribed text is allowed.  It's intended to be used to mark a
> stylistic term in para-text and metadata.  <styleName> is not a metadata
> "field" / container itself and therefore doesn't occur directly within the
> header, say in <encodingDesc>, because allowing it there would place it in
> competition with <classification>.
>
> However, 3.0.0 does provide a pair of new attributes on <staffDef> that
> can be used to describe the notation on each staff.  The @notationtype may
> take the values "cmn", "mensural", "mensural.black", "mensural.white",
> "neume", and "tab", while @notationsubtype may take any textual value.  If
> a 3-tiered classification is necessary for neume notation (like that
> provided for via the "mensural.black" and "mensural.white" values plus
> subtype) we can extend the value set for @notationtype.
>
> --
> p.
>
> __________________________
> Perry Roland
> Music Library
> University of Virginia
> P. O. Box 400175
> Charlottesville, VA 22904
> 434-982-2702 (w)
> pdr4h (at) virginia (dot) edu
> ________________________________________
> From: mei-neumes-ig [mei-neumes-ig-bounces+pdr4h=
> eservices.virginia.edu at lists.uni-paderborn.de] on behalf of Andrew
> Hankinson [andrew.hankinson at mail.mcgill.ca]
> Sent: Monday, June 20, 2016 1:31 PM
> To: mei-neumes-ig at lists.uni-paderborn.de
> Subject: [mei-neumes-ig] Style name
>
> Hi all (but esp. Perry):
>
> I was just perusing the new 3.0.0 guidelines, and noticed a new element:
> "<styleName>".
>
> The documentation for it says "A label for a characteristic style of
> writing or performance, such as 'bebop' or 'rock-n-roll'." Is one possible
> use of this as an identifier of notation-specific writing styles like "st.
> gall" or "square neumes"?
>
> I just wanted to check because I seem to remember Perry and I having long
> arguments over how to best capture this, and am surprised to see it there
> now. :)
>
> -Andrew
>
>
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