Re: Cowell/Ferneyhough Unconventional Meters

[address@hidden]

On Jul 5, 2011, at 11:45 AM, Joseph Wakeling wrote:

> On 07/05/2011 08:57 AM, address@hidden wrote:
>> On Jul 5, 2011, at 8:29 AM, Joey wrote:
>> 
>>> In Ferneyhough's etudes transcendentales,
>>> he employs meters such as 2/12 or 2/10,
>>> acting as literal subdivisions of the semi-breve.
>> 
>> The easiest way would be to create an override for the time signature 
>> stencil:
> 
> No, you don't need to be so complicated. :-)
> 
> 

True, but I say "easiest" because the solution of creating a non-standard time 
signature will lead to a lot of changing between dead and not-dead tuplet 
stencils.

nixtup = {\once \override TupletBracket #'stencil = ##f \once \override 
TupletNumber #'stencil = ##f }
{
   \time 2/10
   \nixtup
   \times 4/5 { c'8 c'8 }
   \nixtup
   \times 4/5 { c'8 c'8 }
   \nixtup
   \times 4/5 {
     % no nix tup because this is a nested tuplet that we want to see.
     \times 2/3 { c'8 c'8 c'8 }
   }
}

Whereas the time signature stencil change avoids this sort of book-keeping.

However, if you are harvesting data from engravers and/or using MIDIs, then 
Joseph is absolutely right - \time 2/10 is the best way to do it.

Cheers,
MS