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I think there may be an anomaly both in the naming, and in the placement in glyph groups, of breathing signs in SMuFL 0.85.
In SMuFL 0.85, there are two main breath mark glyphs:
-- breathMark (U+E4AE, in group "Holds and pauses" (U+E4A0–U+E4BF), with the appearance of a largish comma); and
-- vocalBreathMark (U+E600, in group "Vocal techniques" (U+E600–U+E60F), with the appearance of a tick mark);
A presumably related glyph, with which I am not myself familiar (and have been too lazy to research), is breathMarkSalzedo (U+E4B2), in group "Holds and pauses". Various fermatas and caesuras are also in group "Holds and pauses".
In my experience, the use of the comma-shaped breathMark is much more usual in conventional printed vocal music than the tick-shaped vocalBreathMark. I am ignorant about how widespread the use of the comma-shaped breathMark is in printed music for instruments other than vocal, but my (somewhat inexperienced) impression is that it is not widely used in non-vocal music.
The use of tick marks similar to vocalBreathMark is in fact very common as hand-written performance indications inserted in scores by singers, and would be likely to be understood by them in printed music, but they are in fact seldom seen in conventional printed vocal music, where the comma-shaped breathMark is the norm.
The conventional placement of the comma-shaped breathMark is above the staff (I would guess up to one staff-space above), whereas the tick-shaped vocalBreathMark, to my recollection, generally crosses the top staff line, similarly to caesuras.
I don't have a concrete suggestion for action that might be taken in the context of SMuFL, and I have no expertise in general in the naming and grouping of glyphs, but I hope that consideration might be given to addressing what I think is indeed an anomaly.
This is my first post to this mailing list. I hope I've expressed myself clearly and that what I say is helpful -- not to mention factually correct!
In the context of vocal techniques and breathing, is there a notehead or other glyph for representing an exhalation or sigh? It is not uncommon in choral singing in Africa, but I have no idea of how it is indicated in scores. (Sorry for introducing a red herring here.)
Cheers, Philip
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