[gsharp-devel] suggested change of terminology

[Robert Strandh]

Christophe Rhodes writes:
 > 
 > > In private email, Magnus Johansson told me that a "treble clef" is a
 > > "G clef" on line 2 (in Gsharp terminology) and a "bass clef" is an "F
 > > clef" on line 6 (idem).  This is not the terminology that Gsharp uses
 > > at the moment.  In the book by Ross, I can't find any support for what
 > > Magnus told me, but on the other hand, it is consistent with it.  Ross
 > > simply says that the treble clef and the bass clef never move.  
 > 
 > This is true.  There are other names for other clef/line combinations
 > (e.g. "tenor", "alto" and "soprano" for various positions of the C
 > clef).

OK, so instead of my initial suggestion, I now make the following one:

    I suggest changing the "Insert Staff Above/Below" commands so that
    they initially prompt for a clef.  The only choices possible will
    be names of clef/line combinations (treble, bass, soprano, tenor,
    alto) and no question about the line will be asked.  Finally, I
    suggest adding commands to move the clef of a staff up or down n
    lines according to a numeric argument.

 > Incidentally, there's a tricky terminological issue.  Moving a clef
 > higher means lowering the pitch of the lines: so naming the command
 > should aim to be clear; maybe Move Clef Up?

Sure, that's fine. 

 > Fine by me, though it gets more complicated, again.  Firstly, there's
 > the issue of the 8va treble clef, which has a (slightly) different
 > glyph.  

Right.  I guess that could be one of the choices. 

 > Secondly, there's the issue that several orchestral
 > instruments have transposing clefs -- that is, a clef where the
 > pitches played sound a constant interval away from the notated pitch.
 > (Normal examples: trumpets and clarinets, the latter having the
 > additional amusement that there are several instruments and several
 > transpositions).  This should probably be handled by the clef object
 > rather than the name for the glyph, but it does add to the complexity.

I agree.  I suggest introducing a "transpose interval" to a clef that
will handle that, and that will initially be 0 (is it possible to
indicate it with a numeric value?), and that can be altered.  It would
probably be nice if the input method could either take that interval
into account (for people who think about pitch rather than notation)
or not (for the others). 

-- 
Robert Strandh

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