[gsharp-devel] some microtonal glyphs

[bgruber]

Christophe Rhodes wrote:
> (Also, does anyone know how these beasts relate to what support there
> is in MusicXML?  It would be nice if Brian could support whatever it
> is that makes most sense.)

so here's the deal w/ musicxml as best as i've been able to understand
it (my experience w/ microtones is fairly limited).

first off: musicxml deals w/ presentation and playback as almost
entirely separate entities (this is w/ everything).

For presentation, there is support for a number of microtonal
accidentals: quarter-flat, quarter-sharp, three-quarters-flat, and
three-quarters-sharp. also, while i'm talking about accidentals gsharp
doesn't have, there is also natural-sharp and natural-flat. finally,
musicxml supports a sharp-sharp symbol distinct from double-sharp. i'm
assuming that while double-sharp is the x, sharp-sharp is intended to be
two sharp symbols. i don't believe i am familiar with when this would be
used.

as for playback, this is controlled by an "alter" element which states
the number of semitones a note should be altered by. as such, to get a
quarter sharp you just tell it to alter by .25; a half flat, -.5. as far
as musicxml is concerned, any number you can write down here will do.

on top of this, there is also support for alternate tuning, which i
think works by specifying that a line on the staff represents some
completely arbitrary note. i think that's how it works anyhow; it
doesn't seem to be the best-documented feature of musicxml.

/brian