<-- previous page Table of Contents Index next page -->
In addition to the chord attributes that can appear in the square brackets before time and pitch information, there are a few attributes that are specified after the time and pitch information. These are attributes that start or end on the chord but also affect other chords. There are several such attributes:
If several of these are specified on a single chord, they may be in any order, separated by commas.
If all notes in a chord are to be tied to the following chord,
the keyword "tie"
can be placed at the end of the chord. As was mentioned earlier,
individual notes can be tied using a "~" symbol.
Thus:
ceg tie;
c~e~g~;
You can also produce the effect of tying chords by using additive time
values. For example, the following lines produce the same output:
1: 2ceg tie;8;;4; // explicit tie 1: 2+8ceg;8;4; // tie implied by added time values
The keyword "slur" can be placed at the end of a chord to indicate
that each note in the chord is to be slurred to the corresponding
note in the following chord. In other words, the top note of the chord
is slurred to the top note of the following chord, the second from the
top note in the first chord to the second from the top note in the
second chord, etc.
Thus the following 2 measures give equivalent output:
1: 2f<d> a<b> c+<d+>; dbd+; bar 1: 2fac+ slur; dbd+; bar
The chord with the "slur" keyword and the chord that follows it must have the same number of notes. The word "slur" may be preceded by the word "dotted" or "dashed" to produce dotted or dashed slurs. Otherwise, normal, solid slurs are drawn. The word "slur" may be followed by the word "up" or "down" to specify the direction of each curve's bulge. If neither is specified, Mup will determine an appropriate direction, so you only need to give a direction if you wish to override Mup's choice. After the aforementioned items (if any), you may put "to voice N" to slur to the chord in voice N rather than in the current voice.
Normally, notes of eighth or shorter duration are automatically beamed
according to the specification of
the "beamstyle" parameter.
Occasionally, you may wish to
override the default beaming style for a particular situation.
This is done using the "bm" and "ebm" keywords. The "bm" (short for "beam")
is placed at the end of the chord that is the first to be beamed.
The "ebm" (short for "end beam") is placed at the end of the last chord.
Both chords must be in the same measure. If there is any custom beaming
specified for a given voice in a given measure, only
what you explicitly specify to be beamed will be beamed.
An example:
// The d, e, and f will be beamed together, // but other 8th notes will not be. 1: 4c; 8; d bm; e; f ebm; g; a; bar // First two chords beamed together. // Second chord is tied to third chord. 1: 8.fa bm; 16gc+ tie, ebm; 2; 8a; g; bar
In the absence of custom beaming, Mup will beam notes together
using the
beamstyle parameter,
if that parameter is set.
The beamstyle parameter is a list of time values that add up to
a measure. Each time value tells how many chords to beam together.
For example, a 2 means to beam a half note worth of chords together,
whereas 1.. would indicate that a double dotted whole note worth of
chords should be beamed together.
Here are some examples of how the beamstyle parameter works.
// beam each quarter note worth of notes together, // breaking the beaming at each quarter note boundary score beamstyle = 4,4,4,4 music 1: 8c;d;e;f;g;a;b;c+; bar 1: 8c;d;4e;f;8g;c; bar // beam each half note worth of notes together, // breaking the beaming at each half note boundary score beamstyle = 2,2 music 1: 8c;d;e;f;g;a;b;c+; bar // the middle two eighth notes will not be beamed together, // because they are on opposite sides of the half note boundary 1: 8c;4d;8e;f;4g;8c; bar // beam each whole note worth of notes together score beamstyle = 1 music 1: 8c;d;e;f;g;a;b;c+; bar 1: 8c;4d;8e;f;4g;8c; bar // in 9/8 time, beam each dotted quarter note worth of notes together score time = 9/8 ; beamstyle = 4., 4., 4. music 1: 8c;d;e;d;e;f;e;f;g; bar // the eighth notes will not be beamed together, // because they are on opposite sides of the dotted quarter boundary 1: 4.c;4d;8e;8f;4g; bar // in each measure, beam the first dotted half worth of notes together, // then beam the remaining dotted quarter worth of notes together score beamstyle = 2., 4. music 1: 8c;d;e;d;e;f;e;f;g; bar // in each measure, beam the first dotted quarter worth of notes together // then beam the remaining dotted half worth of notes together score beamstyle = 4., 2.; music 1: 8c;d;e;d;e;f;e;f;g; bar
It is possible to apply the automatic beaming to just a portion of a measure,
by specifying abm ("automatic beaming") on the first group
where it is to be applied, and eabm ("end automatic beaming")
on the last such group.
score beamstyle=2,2 music 1: 8c;d;e;f;g abm;a;b;c+ eabm; bar 1: 8c abm;d;e;f eabm;g;a;b bm;c+ ebm; bar
The value of the beamstyle parameter is remembered for
any later changes back to the same time signature.
For example, suppose you set
time=4/4 beamstyle=4,4,4,4
time=3/4 beamstyle=4,4,4
Normally Mup will break beams whenever it encounters a rest or space, but if you specify an "r" at the end of the beamstyle parameter, it will beam across rests of eighth note or shorter duration. Similarly, specifying an "s" at the end of the beamstyle parameter will cause it to beam across spaces of eighth note or shorter. Specifying both (in either order) will result in beaming across both. Mup will also beam across eighth note or shorter rests or spaces inside of custom beams.
Sometimes, if there are many short notes beamed together, you may wish to
subdivide the beams into smaller groupings, where the outer, or primary
beam remains unbroken, but the inner, or secondary beams are broken
periodically. When using custom beaming, this is specified by "esbm"
("end subbeam" or "end secondary beam")
on the chord after which you want the break to occur.
When using beamstyle, parentheses are used to indicate what sets of
secondary beams are to be included in a given outer beam.
score beamstyle=(4,4),(4,4) music // use the beamstyle parameter 1: 16c;d;e;f; g;a;b;c+; c+;b;a;g; 32f;e;f;e;d;c;d;c; bar // use custom beaming 1: 16c bm;d;e;f;g;a esbm;b;c+;c+;b;a;g esbm;f;e;d;c ebm; bar
In keyboard music, sometimes notes on adjacent staffs are beamed together. Mup will do this with a variation on custom beaming. A bm and ebm must be specified on both staffs, and in each case the bm is followed by a qualifier: on the first of the two staffs, "bm with staff below" must be specified, while on the second staff you use "bm with staff above". For every point in time for the duration of the beam, one staff must have a chord with notes in it, and the other staff must have a space chord. (This is somewhat different than ordinary, non-cross-staff beams controlled by the beamstyle parameter, where spaces are not allowed unless beaming across spaces is specifically requested.) The two "bm" marks must occur at the same time in the measure. Similarly, the two "ebm" marks must occur at the same time in each staff. Grouping subbeams using "esbm" is not supported on cross-staff beams.
Some examples:
1: 8f bm with staff below; a; 4s ebm; 4s bm with staff below; 8b; d ebm; 2: 4s bm with staff above; 8a; b ebm; b bm with staff above; d; 4s ebm; bar
Normally the beam will be drawn between the staffs, but
you can force the beam to be above or below all the notes by specifying a
stem direction.
You can also adjust the appearance of the beam by giving
stems lengths
for the first and last chords in the beam.
1: [up]8f bm with staff below;a;4s ebm;4s bm with staff below;8b;[len 11]d ebm; 2: 4s bm with staff above;8a;b ebm;[down;len 14]b bm with staff above;d;4s ebm; bar
If a cross-staff beam includes tuplets, the tuplet numbers will not be printed. You would have to print them yourself using either a "print" statement or a "boldital" statement.
It is possible for cross-staff beams to collide with other items, such as dynamic marks. There may be undesired interactions between cross-staff beams and cross-staff stems. In these cases, you may need to move other items. Another thing you might try is specifying stem lengths to alter where the beams get placed, or printing a blank string between the staffs to cause them to get placed further apart. If you specify a slope, you have to specify it on the staff having notes in the first chord, not the staff with space. Slashes are not allowed on cross-staff beams.
Mup doesn't directly allow cross-staff grace note beams. However, you may be able simulate the effect by using cue note chords along with invisible time signature changes and possibly invisible bar lines. See the section on "Special uses of invisbar" for more details.
You may want to also look at the section on cross-staff stems, for an alternate way to handle some cases where you might use cross-staff beams.
Alternation pairs
can be specified using "alt N" where N
is a number. An alternation
pair is two chords that are to be played alternately in quick succession
but are not written out as such. This is shown by drawing N beams
between the stems of the chords. The note value you specify for each
chord must be the same, and the time value of each must equal the time
taken by the pair. For example, if the pair takes up the time of a half
note, each chord would be a half note.
Here is an example:
// Alternate between c and c an octave // higher. Total time taken is that of // a half note. Two "beam-like" lines // will be drawn to show the alternation. 1: 2c alt 2; 2c+;2g; bar
Alternation is not allowed on cross-staff beams.
On the first chord of a set of chords that are beamed together,
you can specify a
beam angle from -45 to 45 degrees.
This will override whatever angle Mup would have used.
1: 8g slope 11; b; g slope 0; b; g slope -5.75; b; bar
Phrase marks can be specified by putting "ph" on the chord where you want the phrase to begin, and "eph" on the chord where you want it to end. The ph can optionally be followed by "above" or "below" to specify the side for the phrase mark. The "ph" and its matching "eph do not have to be in the same measure. There is also an alternate way to specify phrase marks, described in the section on Tempo, Dynamic Marks, Ornaments, etc.