Support for Chinese open meter time signature

[nathsiu0202]

Hi all, this is my first ever post on GitHub so please forgive me if I have broken any of the rules/norms round here.

Basically, I would like to propose for the inclusion of the Chinese open meter marking time sig and plucked strings articulations to be included in SMuFL. As composers writing for Chinese orchestras might want to use them in a more standardised format instead of just inserting images into their scores.

Sadly I am not much of a programmer myself so I have no idea on how to implement it, thus this "issue" trying to just give a brief instroduction to them.

Chinese open meter

The use of open meter is very extensive in Chinese orchestral music, and there is a symbol that is conventional to this usage. It resembles the Japanese katakana sa サ. It would be great if we can include this in SMuFL.

Scanned published example by People's Music Publishing House (PMPH):

Some handwritten score for percussion duet:

My personal creation: In a score:

The glyph/symbol by itself:

tl;dr—chinese symbols are cool and very in demand (at least in hong kong, taiwan, singapor, china, etc), include them please?

[nathsiu0202]

i should add: a table for the plucked strings articulation can be easily found in any plucked strings method books, here is a website (chinese sites might be dodgy on privacy, be careful) that have scanned version of a set from a Pipa method book. it's in chinese tho: http://m.yueqixuexi.com/pipa/20170731177933.html

[LupusCaeruleus]

Hello, I am an amateur electronic keyboard player and engraver from China and I am glad to see proposals of Chinese music symbols. I would like to provide more examples and references of the Chinese open meter symbol.

According to 向乾坤.2008.中国钢琴作品中的散板音乐.中国音乐(03),257-259.doi:CNKI:SUN:ZGMU.0.2008-03-068., the symbol derives from the first three strokes of the Chinese character 散, an abbreviation of the term 散板 (open meter, lit. unorganized meter) or 散拍子 (open meter, lit. unorganized beats) used in traditional Chinese music. So the shape of the symbol is basically of a handwritten-styled horizontal stroke intersected by two vertical strokes and can have several variants.

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In many early publications, the symbol appears to have straight strokes, resembling the slanted glyphs 艹 or 卄. Here are some examples below.

1. 阳光灿烂照天山, published in 1978 by 人民音乐出版社 (People's Music Publishing House, PMPH).

2. 山丹丹花开红艳艳, published in 1981 by PMPH.

3. 松花江畔的晚霞, from 合唱歌曲选, published in 1989 by 湖南文艺出版社 (Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House).

4. 花鼓春吟, from 电子琴曲集, published in 2006 by 厦门大学出版社 (Xiamen University Press).

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While in newer publications, the symbol is often identical to the Japanese katakana サ. I am not sure of the reason for this change.

1. 夕阳箫鼓 and 纳木错, from 中国音乐百年作品典藏 (Vol. 14), published in 2014 by PMPH.

2. 第一二胡狂想曲, published in 2017 by PMPH.

3. 蝶恋花·答李淑一, from 义务教育教科书九年级上册 (The Compulsory Education Textbook for Grade 9), 2019 Ed., published by PMPH.

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In addition, the symbol is still quite extensively used today by Chinese musicians. Here is a latest example of Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra (HKCO).

十面埋伏 (Ambush from All Sides), Copyright © 2022 HKCO. The full score and the part scores can be accessed here on HKCO's official website. Also note that symbols for plucked string articulations are also used in the scores.

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And that's it! I really appreciate the work of SMuFL, and I'm expecting more symbols of Chinese music notation to be added in the future.

P.S. I personally prefer the shape of the Chinese open meter sign to be slightly different from that of サ, as the symbol has its own origin and a unique historical shape unrelated to サ.

[mscuthbert]

This looks like the amount of varied usage to usually warrant inclusion in SMuFL. I'm +1.

[nathsiu0202]

excited to see it being included in smufl 1.5! thanks daniel!

[mscuthbert]

Hi @nathsiu0202 -- I'm not Daniel and don't have any kind of final say in what goes in or not, I'm just someone who has been involved w/ SMuFL since pre-v1 and very interested in keeping it manageable but also feature complete.

[nathsiu0202]

o sorry @mscuthbert i was addressing the fact that daniel added it to the smufl 1.5 milestone back in March (which i didn’t notice until just now). sorry i should have specified.

[Andante-MM120]

I just saw this good issue, and have more historical comments on it.

Although one can find many examples of open meter in Chinese opera music, this symbol was actually introduced (or first seen in formal publications) in 1970. Before that, there is no common notations on it, and many chose to ignore that. For example, in Peking opera Red Lantern (红灯记, included in monthly 音乐创作 (Music Compositions), 1964(8), p.24):
or, in "Red Lantern" with Piano Accompaniment (钢琴伴唱《红灯记》, published by Music Publishing House in 1969), beginning from bar 6:

This symbol could be first seen in full scores of model operas. For example, in Revolutionary Modern Peking Opera, Taking Tiger Mountains by Strategies, Full Score (革命现代京剧 智取威虎山 总谱, published by People's Publishing House in Aug 1970): And the glasses-like symbol in the figure above, which is also an important notes in Chinese opera music, means repeating the covered parts (usually not long, varying from two notes to several bars) with indefinite times. In bars with open meter time signature, a stop longer than a whole note but shorter than tacet of a bar would be , for example,

All these notations, especially the open meter signature, was also used in other opera works and all other compositions later to indicate that the time of notes is treated ad libitum and depend on the performers.

However, the open meter symbol was not like what is showed above in number scores. For example, in 文艺节目 第七辑, published by People's Literature Publishing House in July 1974: and in 笛子曲集 第六集(Selections of Dizi Works, No. 6), published by PMPH in 1990:

NB. The Music Publishing House (音乐出版社) became part of People's Literature Publishing House (人民文学出版社) in 1970, and was separated from PLPH around the beginning of 1975 with its name changed into People's Music Publishing House (人民音乐出版社).

[nathsiu0202]

hey Frederic @Andante-MM120 , thank you for the supplementary materials. However I’m convinced that this symbol: is a representation of the multirest without a number. I don’t think it is worth adding to smufl, given it is mainly focused on staff-based notation method. Jianpu / Numeric notation is not so much within the realm here, is it not?

[Andante-MM120]

hey Frederic @Andante-MM120 , thank you for the supplementary materials. However I’m convinced that this symbol: is a representation of the multirest without a number. I don’t think it is worth adding to smufl, given it is mainly focused on staff-based notation method. Jianpu / Numeric notation is not so much within the realm here, is it not?

Yeah, I agree that Jianpu is not within the realm here. I put it here just to give more historical information about that.

And I also agree with Lupus to include this symbol because it has become a common practice.

I think you also misunderstand what I wrote. The multirest is also a staff-based notation.

[nathsiu0202]

As for the ┌ o o ┐ symbol. It could be easily done with some manipulation of the notation softwares either. Like the 1st/2nd ending symbols which, afaik, are not included in smufl (yet) too. So that probably won’t be suitable too.

[Andante-MM120]

And I think PMPH changed the symbol partly because they changed their publishing software, and also the new one resembles both the original one in staff and numeric score. But I prefer the original one.

[nathsiu0202]

And I also agree with Lupus to include this symbol because it has become a common practice.

As opposed to my original version? Or as an alternative version? I do support graphemic variations but I reckon that we only need one symbol in the block for senza misura / shanban time signature, instead of included both the straight and curved right “leg” versions?

Re the multirest symbol, sorry I misread. But I am still on the fence about it. Yes there are usages of this symbol in the past maybe adding it would be good?

[Andante-MM120]

As opposed to my original version? Or as an alternative version? I do support graphemic variations but I reckon that we only need one symbol in the block for senza misura / shanban time signature, instead of included both the straight and curved right “leg” versions?

opposed to your original version, same with Lupus' opinion.

[Andante-MM120]

Re the multirest symbol, sorry I misread. But I am still on the fence about it. Yes there are usages of this symbol in the past maybe adding it would be good?

hmm I am not so sure about that, since I am not familiar with its uses in new compositions. But indeed it can be used not only in open meter, but also in rubato phrases like cadenzas with accompaniments accenting specific notes.

[nathsiu0202]

This is what Lupus wrote

P.S. I personally prefer the shape of the Chinese open meter sign to be slightly different from that of サ, as the symbol has its own origin and a unique historical shape unrelated to サ.

I think they are assuming that I am advocating for using the Katakana directly for the symbol, (or you are assuming that they were assuming so) which I am not. And for my reproduction of the symbol, it is a new glyph that I made from modifying an open source Kai-script typeface’s using the “grass radical” (艹) and either 人 or 丈 or something else (I forgot, I made it 10+ years ago).

compare mine

against the katakana (taken from Wiktionary)

I am not advocating for using the katakana directly, but I also like the more modern curved right leg more so then the older straight right leg.

[Andante-MM120]

As for the ┌ o o ┐ symbol. It could be easily done with some manipulation of the notation softwares either. Like the 1st/2nd ending symbols which, afaik, are not included in smufl (yet) too. So that probably won’t be suitable too.

If there is no 1st/2nd ending symbols in smufl, then it is okay not to include it.

[nathsiu0202]

If there is no 1st/2nd ending symbols in smufl, then it is okay not to include it.

I mean you can check quite easily. I haven’t found it yet, but I am bad at finding stuff lol

[Andante-MM120]

This is what Lupus wrote

P.S. I personally prefer the shape of the Chinese open meter sign to be slightly different from that of サ, as the symbol has its own origin and a unique historical shape unrelated to サ.

I think they are assuming that I am advocating for using the Katakana directly for the symbol, which I am not. And for my reproduction of the symbol, it is a new glyph that I made from modifying an open source Kai-script typeface’s using the “grass radical” (艹) and either 人 or 丈 or something else (I forgot, I made it 10+ years ago).

compare mine

against the katakana (taken from Wiktionary)

I am not advocating for using the katakana directly, but I also like the more modern curved right leg more so then the older straight right leg.

Ah sorry for misunderstanding. That's a good work. It's also a beautiful one haha

[mdgood]

Thanks for all the great discussion here! Could I please encourage everyone in this discussion to join the W3C Music Notation Community Group if you are not already a member? We need your membership in order to incorporate these suggestions into a Community Group Report.

Membership is free of charge. You can go to our home page and click on the "Join or Leave This Group" button to begin the process. Thanks!

[LupusCaeruleus]

Hi @Andante-MM120, thank you too for the materials and the discussion. Here are some of my thoughts:

I agree with @nathsiu0202's view on the rest symbol that it should be considered as a variant of the regular H-bar-shaped multiple measure rest. I think it is better to add it as a stylistic alternate of the existing glyph U+E4EE.

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As for the repeat ad lib. symbol "┌─ o o ─┐", I think the best way is to add only the two circles "o o" in the middle as a new glyph. Given that the numbers for tuplets (U+E880–U+E88F) have already been included as individual glyphs in SMuFL, I believe "o o" deserves its own place too, since they have the same "symbol in the middle of a horizontal bracket" appearance.

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As for the open meter notation, my point was that PMPH, as the most authoritative publisher of sheet music in China, often seems to directly use the katakana サ in a Kai-script typeface as a substitute for the symbol in many recent publications. Although this is common practice, I think it is better to design a more distinctive shape for it (as @nathsiu0202 did) rather than just following what PMPH did.

And I suggest the "curved right leg" shape should be considered as the standard form in SMuFL (because it is used more often today), while the "straight" historical shape should also be added as a stylistic alternate.

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Also, as for the Chinese plucked strings (and other instruments) articulations symbols, I have just found an excellent book The TENG Guide To The Chinese Orchestra, which introduces the various instruments in a Chinese orchestra and their notation in great detail and could be a good reference and a starting point. (It cannot be accessed for free though, so I would be willing to share my purchased PDF copy if anyone needs it.)

I'm afraid it will be a big project to include all the symbols of Chinese instrument notation as I found several challenges, as listed below:

• The total number of the symbols is very large, about several dozen.
• Some of the symbols have exactly the same or very similar shapes to each other or as the existing symbols in SMuFL, but their meanings and usage are more or less different. I think it is necessary to carefully consider whether to add each symbol.
• There are some notations that I am not sure if they can be considered as a symbol and added to SMuFL.
• In some of the other examples and references I have collected, some of the symbols seem to have several different variants, and I am not sure if these are typeface-based differences or stylistic alternates.

So this could be a very time-consuming task, and I think we may need to find more participants who are more familiar with traditional Chinese instruments to join this project.

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And Re: @mdgood, Thank you for the invitation. I have just joined the W3C Music Notation Community Group.

[dspreadbury]

I've split off the discussion about playing techniques to #260 and have asked for some help in providing suitable English names for those techniques.

The open time signature glyph will be called  timeSigOpenChinese and found at U+EC87.