Re: Learning LilyPond, comments invited

[karl]

Colin Tennyson:
> Carl Sorensen-3 wrote
> > Your music has some durations that cross bar lines.  These durations mess
> > up the bar checks.  Is there a reason you don't separate them into tied
> > groups so there are bar line breaks?
...
> The composer, Philippe Verdelot, lived somewhere around 1500, and back then
> they didn't use bar lines yet.

There are examples of pre1600 scores using bar lines though I don't 
have any references handy. Perhaps if you consult:

 Willy Apel / The Notation of Polyphonic Music 900-1600

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_line says:

 The earliest barlines, used in keyboard and vihuela music in the 15th
 and 16th centuries, didn't reflect a regular meter at all but were
 only section divisions, or in some cases marked off every beat.

 Barlines began to be introduced into ensemble music in the late 16th
 century but continued to be used irregularly for a time. Not until
 the mid-1600s were barlines used in the modern style with every
 measure being the same length, and they began to be associated with
 time signatures.

> Please consult the following entry from the LilyPond documentation:
> http://www.lilypond.org/doc/v2.17/Documentation/notation/working-with-ancient-music_002d_002dscenarios-and-solutions#mensurstriche-layout

Mensurstriche are really hard to read and confuses many
singers/musicians. Why don't you either a) don't use bar lines and the 
likes at all or b) use:

 
http://www.lilypond.org/doc/v2.17/Documentation/notation/displaying-rhythms#automatic-note-splitting

and

 \set Score.defaultBarType = ";"

> It's a compromise. The ancient notation isn't copied, but some
> characteristics are allowed to shine through, particularly the fact that
> renaissance music has no concept of measures.

Yes and no. The music had the concept of "taktus", which meant a few 
different things.

. how the brevis was subdivided, in 3 (perfect) or in 2 (imperfect) 
  semibrevis
. the normal pulse, it was what the then current conductor showed in 
  his gesture, up and down.
. the word taktus has survived in the word tempo (= beat), and the
  german/swedish/dänish/finnish word for bar/measure, see:
  http://www.lilypond.org/doc/v2.17/Documentation/music-glossary/measure

In the music of that time (and the baroque and up to our days)
there was the concept of strong and weak beats (see e.g.
Jeppesen / Kontrapunkt (vokalpolyfoni)).

The wikipedia link above also says:

 In musical notation, a bar (or measure) is a segment of time defined
 by a given number of beats, each of which are assigned a particular
 note value.

and in that sense the concept of a bar/measure is clearly there.

In some ways you could say that the the brevis was what is a
bar/measure today.

Regards,
/Karl Hammar

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