preliminary proposal: New Unicode characters for Arabic music half-flat and half-sharp symbols

[Hans Åberg via Unicode]

> On 16 May 2018, at 00:48, Ken Whistler via Unicode <unicode at unicode.org> wrote:
> 
> On 5/15/2018 2:46 PM, Markus Scherer via Unicode wrote:
>> I am proposing the addition of 2 new characters to the Musical Symbols table:
>> 
>> - the half-flat sign (lowers a note by a quarter tone) 
>> - the half-sharp sign (raises a note by a quarter tone)
>> 
>> In an actual proposal, I would expect a discussion of whether you are proposing to encode established symbols, or whether you are proposing new symbols to be adopted by the community (in which case Unicode would probably wait & see if they get established).
>> 
>> A proposal should also show evidence of usage and glyph variations.
> 
> And should probably refer to the relationship between these signs and the existing:

It would be best to encode the SMuFL symbols, which is rather comprehensive and include those:
 https://www.smufl.org
 http://www.smufl.org/version/latest/

> U+1D132 MUSICAL SYMBOL QUARTER TONE SHARP
> U+1D133 MUSICAL SYMBOL QUARTER TONE FLAT
> 
> which are also half-sharp or half-flat accidentals.
> 
> The wiki on flat signs shows this flat with a crossbar, as well as a reversed flat symbol, to represent the half-flat.
> 
> And the wiki on sharp signs shows this sharp minus one vertical bar to represent the half-sharp.
> 
> So there may be some use of these signs in microtonal notation, outside of an Arabic context, as well. See:
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accidental_(music)#Microtonal_notation

These are otherwise originally the same, but has since drifted. So whether to unify them or having them separate might be best to see what SMuFL does, as they are experts on the issue.