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Date: Mon, 15 Feb 88 14:32:40 PST
From: bradr@Sun.COM (Brad Rubenstein)
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To: mus_fwd%sun-arpa@Sun.COM
Subject: Music Research Digest Vol 3 #6
Status: R

Music-Research Digest       Mon, 15 Feb 88       Volume 3 : Issue   6 

Today's Topics:
               Comments on ANSI document X3V1.8M/87-35
                 MIDI terminals? MIDI time stamping?
                   Score editing system for SUN's?


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Date: Mon, 8 Feb 88 11:43:50 PST
From: dgl <(D. Gareth Loy)dgl%sdcarl@edu.ucsd>
Subject: Comments on ANSI document X3V1.8M/87-35
To: Music-Research <Music-Research%uk.ac.oxford.prg@uk.ac.ucl.cs.nss>

With re. Roger Dannenberg's note on synchronizing multiple parts with
varying tempi, a further example is the work of Conlon Nancarrow.
Alas, I don't remember it well enough to cite works, (James Tenney
wrote a magnificient analysis of many of his Studies for Player Piano)
but for instance, in one early work he had one hand of the piano
continuously decreasing in speed while the other hand continuously
increased.  In another, he stipulated the temporal ratio of two parts
to be e/pi.

But the point is: how did he realize these works?  For his early work,
he started with a standard, commercially available beat-oriented
roll-cutting tool that was designed for the popular music commonly
produced in those times for player piano.  As such, it did not have
sufficient temporal resolution for his work and he eventually modified
it to improve its precision.  Even so, it was a limitation which forced
him to approximate the ideal he stipulated.  (Will the Nancarrows of
the future find our work on standardization as easy to adjust to their
artistic aims?)

When it comes to realization, we are usually forced to make
approximations to an ideal.  An implementation that expresses durations
as reals seems like a reasonable compromise.  However, Nancarrow was
not required to approximate the SPECIFICATION of his work.  The
language we standardize for specifying scores should allow statements
to the effect: ``the ratio of these two tempi is as e/pi,'' with the
expectation that any realization will be necessarily an approximation.
But if the specification itself is also subjected to approximation, the
work itself is degraded.  This agrees with what I understand to be a
main goal of SGML, i.e., the separation of formal description from
artifacts related to implementation.
	=Gareth Loy

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Date: 11-FEB-1988 15:48:39 GMT
From: MUA003@UK.AC.LANCS.VAX2
Subject: MIDI terminals? MIDI time stamping?
To: MUSIC-RESEARCH@UK.AC.OXFORD.PRG

I have suggested to our Engineering Department a project to design and build
a semi-intelligent MIDI interface to connect to standard (e.g. RS232) lines
so as to act as a sort of "MIDI terminal" on standard computer set-ups
(e.g. time sharing systems).

1. Does anyone know of such a device existing already? (I notice an absence of
responses to the MIDI to RS232 interface enquiry in V.2 issue 32.)
2. Where can I get information on TMF or other MIDI time stamping proposals?

If the project goes ahead, I will inform the Digest of progress.

Alan Marsden <mua003@uk.ac.lancs.vax2 / mua003%lancs.vax2@ukacrl.bitnet>

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 11 Feb 88 11:45:27 GMT
From: allen%csta.uucp@uk.ac.sussex.cvaxa (Allen Stoughton)
Subject: Score editing system for SUN's?
To: music-research%uk.ac.oxford.prg.sevax@uk.ac.sussex.cvaxa

I'm looking for a score editing and printing system that will run on
SUN's under X-windows and produce postscript output.  Can anyone
provide a pointer to such a system?

Allen Stoughton

Computer Science Subject Group
University of Sussex

allen@uk.ac.sussex.cvaxa (JANET)
allen%cvaxa.sussex.ac.uk@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk (ARPA)

------------------------------

End of Music-Research Digest
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