Humdrum Toolkit Command Reference -- solfa

COMMAND

solfa – translate selected Humdrum pitch-related representations to tonic solfa syllables (solfa)

SYNOPSIS

` solfa [-tx] [inputfile …] [> outputfile.sol]`

DESCRIPTION

The solfa command transforms various pitch-related inputs to the corresponding tonic solfa syllables. The command outputs one or more Humdrum solfa spines — where pitches are designated by the syllables do, re, mi, fa, so, la, and ti — or their chromatic alterations: di, da, ri, ra, etc. (see below). Tonic solfa syllables can be determined only with reference to some prevailing key. For example, the pitch C is the tonic (do) in the key of C major, but the mediant (mi) in the key of A-flat major. The solfa command expects a tandem interpretation indicating the key of the input passage; solfa will adapt to specified changes of key within an input stream. If no key information is provided prior to the first pitch-related data, solfa issues an error message and terminates.

There are various systems for extending the tonic solfa syllables in order to representing chromatic alterations. The system used by solfa is tabulated below. (Pronunciations are indicated in parentheses.)

basic raised lowered

do (doe) di (dee) de (day) re (ray) ri (ree) ra (raw) mi (me) my (my) me (may) fa (fah) fi (fee) fe (fay) so (so) si (see) se (say) la (la) li (lee) le (lay) ti (tee) ty (tie) te (tay) ———— ———— ————-

Summary of solfa Signifiers

The solfa command differs from the deg and degree commands in that pitches are represented without regard to major or minor mode. For example, in the key of C major, deg and degree will characterize A-flat as a lowered sixth scale degree, whereas the same pitch will be a normal sixth scale degree in the key of C minor. In the case of solfa, the A-flat will be characterized as le — whether or not the key is C major or C minor. As in the case of deg and degree, the amount of chromatic alteration is not represented; once a pitch is "raised," raising it further will not change the output representation. For example, where the tonic pitch is B-flat, both B-natural and B-sharp are represented by di.

The solfa command is able to translate any of the pitch-related representations listed below. For descriptions of the various input representations (including solfa) refer to Section 2 (Representation Reference) of this reference manual.

It is recommended that output files produced by the solfa command should be given names with the distinguishing .sol extension.

kern core pitch/duration representation pitch American National Standards Institute pitch notation (e.g. "A#4") solfg French solfège system (fixed `doh') Tonh German pitch system ———– ———————————————————————-

Input representations processed by solfa.

OPTIONS

The solfa

command provides the following options:

displays a help screen summarizing the command syntax

suppresses printing of all but the first note of a group of tied notes

suppresses printing of non-**solfa signifiers Options are specified in the command line.

The t option ensures that only a single output value is given for tied notes; the output coincides with the first note of the tie.

In the default operation, solfa outputs non-pitch-related signifiers in addition to the degree value. For example, in the key of D, the kern token "4Gz" will result in the output "4faz" — that is, after translating G to fa, the "4...z" signifiers are retained in the output. For some applications, echoing non-pitch-related signifiers in the output is useful. However, in other situations, the result can prove confusing. The x option is useful for eliminating non-pitch-related signifiers from the output.

EXAMPLES

The following example illustrates the use of solfa. The input contains four pitch-related spines — one of which (MIDI) cannot be processed by solfa. In addition, there is one non-pitch-related spines (embell). ``

!! `solfa' example. **kern **Tonh **MIDI **solfg **pitch **embell *M2/4 *M2/4 *M2/4 *M2/4 *M2/4 *M2/4 *C: *d: *G#: *a: *F: *F: =1 =1 =1 =1 =1 =1 8ee- Gis2 /60/ do3 F4foo ct . . /-60/ . . . 8f H2 /62/ fa3 G4bar upt . . /-62/ . . . 8dd- B2 /70/ mi3 E4 ct . . /-70/ . . . 8d— Cis4 /61/ r F4 sus . . /-61/ . . . =2 =2 =2 =2 =2 =2 [4a- r . mi_b3 F4 A4 . . Heses2 . re3 G4 Bb4 ct 4a-] C3 /48/ /52/ do3 E4 C5 ct . . /-48/ . . . . H2 E3 /-52/ la3 G4 ct =3 =3 =3 =3 =3 =3 r A2 F3 . r F4 . == == == == == == *- *- *- *- *- *- ———————– ———- ———– ———– ———– ————

Executing the command:

` solfa -tx input > output`

produces the following result: ``

!! `solfa' example. **solfa **solfa **MIDI **solfa **solfa **embell *M2/4 *M2/4 *M2/4 *M2/4 *M2/4 *M2/4 *C: *d: *G#: *a: *F: *F: =1 =1 =1 =1 =1 =1 me fi /60/ me do ct . . /-60/ . . . fa la /62/ le r upt . . /-62/ . . . ra le /70/ so ti ct . . /-70/ . . . ra ti /61/ r do sus . . /-61/ . . . =2 =2 =2 =2 =2 =2 le r . so do mi . . le . fa re fa ct . te /48/ /52/ me ti so ct . . /-48/ . . . . la re /-52/ do re ct =3 =3 =3 =3 =3 =3 r so me . r do . == == == == == == *- *- *- *- *- *- ———————– ———– ———– ———– ———– ————

Both processed and unprocessed spines are output. Notice that the tied note at the beginning of measure 2 in the kern spine has been rendered as a single note rather than as two notes (due to the t option). Also notice that the non-pitch-related signifiers (e.g. foo) in the first notes of the pitch spine have been stripped away (due to the x option).

FILES

The file x_option.awk is used by this program when the x option is invoked.

PORTABILITY

DOS 2.0 and up, with the MKS Toolkit. OS/2 with the MKS Toolkit. UNIX systems supporting the Korn shell or Bourne shell command interpreters, and revised awk (1985).