[smufl-discuss] Additional Glyphs

[Adler, Mark]

Hello Daniel,

Congratulations on the release of Bravura and SMuFL. The discussions
needed to develop a standardized music font are long overdue; thanks for
taking this on.  Over the past six months or so I have undertaken a
similar project, updating and consolidating our Maestro and fonts into one
Unicode-compliant OTF font, developing a standard for Finale fonts in the
future. Hopefully, we can work with the development of SMuFL to arrive at
a truly universal standard.

 
I would like to propose the addition of a number of glyphs and categories.
Much of what we have done with our font sets in the past has allowed our
users to develop  an individual look and feel. I would like to see this
type of functionality continue with a standardized font with the addition
of a fair number of alternate characters. For example, I would like to see
room for  at least three styles of clefs and noteheads. Clefs and
noteheads, more than other elements in a music font, help to define the
overall look of a document. Inclusion of several styles of noteheads and
clefs would allow users to easily create their own style.  In our
instance, for example, users could easily switch between standard Maestro
noteheads, MaestroWide noteheads, or a third style of notehead.

 
Going category by category, I would make the following suggestions:

 
Repeats: add the stylized coda sign favored in Japanese music fonts.

 
Clefs: In addition to adding several variations of clefs noted above, for
TAB clefs, I would suggest including both serif and non-serif versions,
both with bold and non-bold options. All of these options are in fairly
common use.

 
Noteheads: add several more variations for x noteheads, circle x
noteheads, and diamond noteheads. These are used in many different genres;
the diamond notehead favored by handbell choirs for hand chimes is
definitely not the same as the diamond notehead favored by guitarists for
harmonics, which may or may not be the same as the diamond notehead
favored by percussionists.

 
Note Clusters: add combining glyphs that enable users to create clusters
of any size. Both square and rounded versions could be included.
 
Notes: add a whole note notehead that uses single line wings, as is
commonly used in modern chant notation. I would also add square breve and
double breve characters to this category.

 
Tremolos: include a 4-line tremolo, we are asked for this character from
time to time and see it in use in a number of scores we have developed for
SmartMusic.

 
Flags: add a few variations on the 8th flag and internal combing flag
glyphs. I would also suggest including characters that can be used as
angled straight flags, like those used in old Boosey scores.

 
Accidentals: I would suggest supporting several more systems of microtonal
notation along with the inclusion of some more old style notation
standards, i.e. a double sharp made up of two sharps and a triple sharp
and triple flat.

 
Rests: add left and right characters that combine with a numeral to form a
multi-measure. These are commonly created as text items and used at page
turns.

 
Dynamics: I would strongly recommend including the full range of
characters from fortissississimo on down. The fs used to form a
fortississimo are not necessarily the same as an f used to form a forte.
In some fonts, when combining several fs or ps, weight is taken out of the
body of the individual characters in order to achieve a more elegant, less
chunky look.

 
Ornaments: add trills combined with accidentals. I would also suggest
leaving much more room for more types of mordents.

 
Brass Techniques: I would suggest leaving several open slots after each
symbol. I imagine that this standard would also accommodate handwritten
fonts like Jazz. Handwritten fonts typically have many variations of each
of these techniques.

 
Wind techniques: Maybe not the best place to put them, but I would include
characters with two, three, and four dots, sans the slur.

 
Tuned Mallets: add a blank zero-width trapezoid allowing users to create
variations on the abbreviations or use a different text font if desired.

 
Bells: add a handbell pictogram.

 
Cymbals: add a Chinese cymbal pictogram.

 
Percussion Technique: I'd suggest adding a larger variety of dovetailing
line symbols. These should include small and large circular motion
segments, both above and below, various waveforms and characters that can
be combined and used as scribbles. All are common to modern percussion
notation.

 
Handbells: add variations on the J echo and gyro. My discussions with the
English Handbell Ringers Association indicate that some of their engravers
prefer the light version of these glyphs, like you have in Bravura, while
others prefer a much thicker version. There are several other characters
missing from this category.

 
Guitar: include enclosed string numbers with serifs to accompany the
san-serif version.

 
I would suggest a category for shape-notes. While these noteheads are
similar to the geometric noteheads found in Noteheads, they typically are
heavier and more stylized in dedicated shape-note fonts.

 
Add many more brackets and braces, including double high parentheses and
brackets to accommodate stacked chord symbols. I would also suggest
creating spaces for the various types of text enclosures typically used in
handwritten fonts.

 
I would suggest including a category dedicated to noteheads containing
solfege abbreviations and note names similar to KidNotes and Finale
AlphaNotes.

 
A miscellaneous category should contain a do-not-copy glyph and some
eyeglasses glyphs.

 
I'd also add accidentals to support Persian and Turkish notation.

 
I'll be happy to include images of any or all of the glyphs described
above.

 
Mark F. Adler
Sr. Music Editor
MakeMusic, Inc.




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