Re: link to Kievan Notes page

[Monk Panteleimon]

Han-Wen wrote:
>
> Some questions:
>
>  - what's the placement rule for the horizontal beams on 16ths?

Beams are always horizontal, always cover a staff line and they don't care 
where they might intersect with note stems.

For down-pointing stems, the beam covers "a" (la, second staff line from 
bottom) unless the run of 16ths contains a "b" or lower, in which case the 
beam moves down to the "f" line, the bottom of the staff. 
In order for the beam to be moved to the center-line, one of the notes must 
reach the higher "f"  (top space) and the group must contain no notes *lower* 
than "e". If the group contains an "f" but also a "d", the beam remains on 
the "a" line. 

This scheme is precisely inverted for up-pointing pointing stems:
Beam is on "e" unless run goes "d" or higher, in which case beam moves to "g" 
line (top). Run must contain low "g" to move beam to center line, but if the 
same run contains a note higher than "a", the beam will stay on the "e"-line 
and will not descend to the center-line.

I'm still looking for examples of beamed 16ths above the staff to see what 
they do.

Having written all of that out, I think I see what you mean by "special 
routine."

>  - the length of 8th note stems varies between 2 and 2.5 staff space.
> What's the reasoning behind this?

Juergen says:
  /* Mensural notation: For notes on staff lines, use different
        flags than for notes between staff lines.  The idea is that
        flags are always vertically aligned with the staff lines,
        regardless if the note head is on a staff line or between two
        staff lines.  In other words, the inner end of a flag always
        touches a staff line.
     */

I say:
It definitely has this effect, and he's right to observe that we don't get the 
same affect with up-pointing stems. I don't know the reason, but I would 
point out that there are other differences between up-and-down line-8ths and 
space-8ths. The heads of line-8ths and space-8ths are different sizes, the 
space-heads begin smaller so as to more clearly show that they are contained 
in the space. The stem-up-space-eighths also have their head slightly 
slanted. So, they are really 4 different shapes, I think.
Actually, I suspect that a lot of these little differences stem from the fact 
than when these books began to be mechanically typeset they were closely 
imitating a manuscript style. The different shape* (not just the length- the 
stem is thinner at the top) of the down-stem on a space-head, for example, 
comes from holding the pen differently in order to make a smaller notehead.
At any rate, the 8th note is certainly the most common glyph in the bunch, and 
I suspect that the variety among is part of what makes it possible to set the 
notes so closely without a cramped or mechanical appearance. I have seen  
chant set with round notes that are spaced like kievan notes, and the 
appearance is painful. 

One more note about 8ths: Stems don't turn upwards until the notehead gets 
down to line 2. However, stem direction *is* decided by neighboring stems, so 
an "a" note can set a subsequent "b" upward, until a c turns the tide again. 
That deciduous-stem option sponsored by Basil Crow might come in handy here. 
(?) 

>  - how is the Y-position of the final (two horizontal bars) determined?

The pitch is between the 2 bars, as with the halfnote.  I may have misused the 
word "final." I meant the last note of the hymn, which is held to an 
arbitrary duration. In the example listed first on my jpg image page: 
f1\fermata (could be f2\fermata, depending on what comes next).

Thank you for your responses. I will respond separately to the other message 
about sponsorship.

Fr. P