Re: Staccato

[Cynthia Karl]

> Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 23:18:31 +0100
> From: Noeck <address@hidden>
> Subject: Re: Staccato
> Am 19.01.2015 um 20:29 schrieb Cynthia Karl:
>> 
>>> On Jan 19, 2015, at 1:20 PM, Ed Gordijn <address@hidden
>>> <mailto:address@hidden>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi Cynthia,
>>>> Is there a way to get the second snippet to produce regular staccato dots?
>>> 
>>> You van use \dotsDown or \dotsUp
> 
> I confirm ? as it has been written before ? that these dots are augmentation
> dots like in ?a4.? and not staccato dots.

You must have an intimate knowledge of LP source code to be able to say that.  
In the Learning Manual, there is a single mention of dotsDown, in a discussion 
of UP and DOWN.  In the Notation Manual, there are five mentions, one saying 
simply that it is a predefined command, and four references to that statement 
in the appendices.  I don't think there are any other mentions of dotsDown in 
the other LP documentation.  How would anyone know what \dotsDown does?

> Staccato dots are ?Script?s in LilyPond and their direction can be set via:
> \override Script.direction = #UP
> or
> \override Script.direction = #DOWN

Again, you must have an intimate knowledge LP source code to know that.  There 
are a couple of mention of scripts associated with staccato in the Notation 
Manual, but nothing that leaps out and grabs one.  In the Learning Manual, a 
single mention of staccato in an appendix that points to a section that shows 
"-." but doesn't mention the word staccato.
> 
> However, as also expressed before, LilyPond does it correctly in your 
> examples.

Don't you think at least that the statement in the Music Glossary ("Staccato is 
indicated by a dot above or below the note head.") should be amended?  I think 
there is only a single reference to Elaine Gould in all the LP documentation, 
in the Notation Manual, p85:  See Gould, p. 153.  The Notation Manual doesn't 
have an evident bibliography, so the meaning of that reference is obscure.  As 
indicated earlier, I have found authorities (Gardner Read: Music Notation and 
GeorgeHeussenstamm:  The Norton Manual of Music Notation) that agree with LP's 
current position (in the Music Glossary).  So it's not entirely clear that LP 
is doing it correctly in my examples.  It's certainly not doing it correctly in 
the sense of its own stated definition of where a staccato dot goes.