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<p>On 2024-07-22 23:26, Werner LEMBERG via Unicode wrote:</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:20240723.082657.1455619143327118987.wl@gnu.org">
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<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">we wonder about the origin of the following two characters:
𝄲 U+1D132 MUSICAL SYMBOL QUARTER TONE SHARP
𝄳 U+1D133 MUSICAL SYMBOL QUARTER TONE FLAT
The original proposal to encode them in Unicode is
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://unicode.org/L2/L1998/98045.pdf">https://unicode.org/L2/L1998/98045.pdf</a> – alas, the contained scans
don't cover those two characters, and I don't have access to the cited
books.
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Well, thanks to the internet I was able to actually check the cited
references (Read, Heussenstamm, Rastall, Stone), and *none* of them
actually contain these accidentals!
Sigh. Does anybody have an e-mail address of the proposal's author,
Perry Roland? Maybe he can remember...
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Found it – I've CCed him. Perry, please comment!
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<p>In answer to the original question, "does anybody know about
these accidentals?", I am delighted that I actually know something
helpful to answer this question.</p>
<p>I follow two leading communities working on music notation. Each
of them probably has people who know about these accidentals. Each
of them has a public discussion forum, in which this question
could be relayed. There may also be other music notation
communities with which I am not familiar.</p>
<p>1. the <a href="https://www.w3.org/community/music-notation/">W3C
Music Notation Community Group</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="https://www.w3.org/community/music-notation/"><https://www.w3.org/community/music-notation/></a>. It was
formed primarily to take over maintenance of the MusicXML notation
spec, but it also maintains the SMuFL (Standard Music Font Layout)
specification. Werner linked to SMuFL at
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="https://w3c.github.io/smufl/latest/index.html"><https://w3c.github.io/smufl/latest/index.html></a>. SMuFL
"provides a standard way of mapping the thousands of musical
symbols required by conventional music notation into the Private
Use Area in Unicode’s Basic Multilingual Plane for a single
(format-independent) font." Thus the W3C Music Notation Community
Group's public-music-notation list would be a good place to relay
this question. The Group's main page has a link to that mailing
list.</p>
<p>2. the Music Encoding Initiative
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="https://music-encoding.org/"><https://music-encoding.org/></a>. It was formed primarily to
maintain the MEI notation spec. It has a largely academic focus
and membership. Perry Roland (cc'd) is one of the founders and
leading experts of the MEI community, but I understand that he is
leaving the leadership to others these days. Thus the people in
this community are good prospects to know about how these symbols
are actually used in music scores. The MEI group has an email list
and Slack channel, both described at
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="https://music-encoding.org/community/community-contacts.html"><https://music-encoding.org/community/community-contacts.html></a>.
The Slack channel is the more conversational venue. It would also
be a good place to relay this question.<br>
</p>
<p>What specifically would you like to know about these
accidentals? What do you "wonder about the origin of" [these two
characters]? If you would write a message with your questions, I
will post that in these two foums.</p>
<p>Best regards,<br>
—Jim DeLaHunt</p>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
. --Jim DeLaHunt, <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:jdlh@jdlh.com">jdlh@jdlh.com</a> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://blog.jdlh.com/">http://blog.jdlh.com/</a> (<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://jdlh.com/">http://jdlh.com/</a>)
multilingual websites consultant, Vancouver, B.C., Canada</pre>
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