Re: [proposal] easy triplets and tuplets - Draft 3

[Joseph Rushton Wakeling]

On 10/07/2012 05:04 PM, Ian Hulin wrote:
> The design was deliberately restricted to providing
> shorthands for the \times commands with 2:3 and 3:2 ratios expressed in
> the n/m rational parameter, however there seemed to be a feeling that
> the 5:4 ratio was just as common.  (See 6. above).

Yes, it is, and you can probably also include \septuplet as being equivalent to 
\tuplet 7 as being equivalent to \times 4/7.

That's the established modern standard septuplet, although there are others in 
the literature past and present (in modern pieces, alternate septuplets are 
usually given with the explicit ratio, e.g. 7:6, 7:8 etc.).

> 3. Another suggestion was that \tuplet command could be flexible
> enough to cater for the the commoner forms of tuplets by using
> defaults to arguments which the user could omit

Apologies for coming late with these next remarks, but it's perhaps worth 
thinking about quite how flexible a \tuplet command could be, in respect of some 
of the various modern notations out there.

Just to give a flavour, besides the standard

                        |------ n ------|

(i.e. bracket with number), and the almost-as-standard

                        |----- n : m -----|

(i.e. ratio), you also might encounter something like,

                        |----- 3 : 2 {2} -----|
or
                        |----- 3 {2} : 2 -----|

where {2}, {4}, {8} etc. represents a written half, quarter, eighth note, etc.

or perhaps,
                        |----- 7 {16} : {4} -----|

and sometimes things like,

                        |----- 5 {16} : 4 {16} -----|

(which feels a bit redundant but is certainly unambiguous).

Of course, conceptually you could also write any arbitrary combination, like

                        |----- 5 {16} : 2 {4} -----|

... though it's not a notation you're likely to find (never say never...).

What you can also get is something where the total duration of the tuplet is 
indicated above the number or ratio, something like e.g.

                               {4}
                        |------ 3 ------ |

(3 triplet eighths = 1 quarter note in total)

or
                                 {8}
                        |------ 5 : 4 ------|

(5 quintuplet 32nds = 1 eighth-note)

or
                               { 8 ~ 16. }
                        |------ 11 : 7 ------|

(11 32nd-notes in the time of 7)

This indicator of total duration is used very widely by Ferneyhough to indicate 
the total length of the outermost of his extensively nested tuplets (*), and 
it's quite a useful device in being able to see how long a given complex 
rhythmic section lasts relative to the conductor's beat.  You can see examples here:
http://soundandmusic.org/thecollection/files/scores/6634w.pdf

(* Ferneyhough's more recent scores, engraved with Finale, seem to omit this 
notation, which is a shame, and probably entirely down to Finale not being able 
to provide it automatically.)

So, for a _really_ effective \tuplet command, it would be great if the syntax 
could allow for specifying these different options -- single number, ratio, 
ratio with note values before, after or both sides, total duration above -- in a 
concise and simple way, _without_ needing to engage in copious \overrides and 
manually writing the contents of the tuplet bracket.

I realize that's a somewhat broader scope of notation than is really the focus 
of this proposal, but my feeling is it should be possible to implement as a 
natural extension of the \tuplet functionality already proposed so far.  I just 
thought I'd bring it up so the design of \tuplet doesn't cut off these 
possibilities before they've even been considered.

I do have some tentative syntax ideas here here, but before putting them forward 
I'd rather hear what others have to think.