w3c / smufl

Standard Music Font Layout
https://w3c.github.io/smufl/latest/
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Add "Con ped." and "Senza ped." symbols to 'Keyboard techniques' range #3

Open dspreadbury opened 9 years ago

dspreadbury commented 9 years ago

Requested by Alexander Plötz:

"In my apparently never-ending crusade to reinvent piano pedaling convention, I'd like to make a suggestion for two new stylized symbols for "con pedale" and "senza Pedale" (see the attachments for my utterly crude mock-ups, which, typographically, are in no way what I have in mind; but since my go-to font guy is too busy at the moment, I had to go full MS Paint again). In answer to your legitimate question of "Huh?!": the need arose from the request of a composer/pianist colleague of mine, who prefers in his works a general "con pedale" instead of the usual highly detailed pedaling instructions often found in contemporary piano music. However, he also switches very frequently between such "con pedale" sections and sections without any use of the pedals, often several times on a single system. In that context the old convention of stating general pedal instructions in plain text becomes problematic, since unstylized text tends to be read as much more generalized indications (which is in fact how the conventional use of "con pedale" works), while increasing the size for those indications (to make them more conspicuous) is not only typographically questionable, but also comes with new problems in the often cramped conditions of sophisticated piano music. The proposed solution would allow to elevate, if needed, "con pedale" and "senza pedale" from the "secondary" plain text indication to the more direct "primary" level of musical symbols, thus closing a gap in contemporary piano notation."

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knutnergaard commented 8 years ago

If these were to be added, I would like to see them on one line, without drop caps, as well. Come to think of it, stylized versions of Una Corda and Tre Corde would also be nice additions to the keyboard techniques range.