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Views from the Choir Loft

As easy as (G)ABC

Veronica Brandt · June 1, 2013

HEN explaining square notes people are stumped by these notes stacked one on top of the other. It takes a little while for singers to automatically start at the bottom of the stack. The notation came from what worked writing with a broad nibbed pen on vellum. It didn’t translate easily to lead type, or computer software.

Then Elie Roux appeared suggesting we could simplify the code with something like ABC notation. It seemed a mad idea. Gregorian notation is not like modern music. There are all those different neumes: punctum, podatus, torculus, climacus. How would you hope to specify the pitch and shape of each note as well as the fine gradations of spaces.

After a while he came up with GABC and Gregorio. This used a markup language with similarities to ABC plus a processor to typeset the music using TeX. This was very exciting to those already familiar with TeX and old fashioned text based software, but most of the musical population would smile and nod with a slightly glazed expression.

Then there was the idea to share GABC files at the Caecilia Project, but the interface was clunky until recently when Olivier Berten released Gregobase. Now you have the editable GABC for the geeks alongside handsome pdf, eps and png files ready to paste into the desktop publishing program of your choice. There are also scans of the original music for proofreading purposes.

I might have to leave the GABC transcriber for another post. Go check out Gregobase.

Image from British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts Arundel 130

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Gregorian Chant Software, Gregorio Last Updated: May 14, 2020

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About Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. She lives near Sydney, Australia, with her husband and six children.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

    Simplified Antiphons • “Candlemas”
    Anyone who desires simplified antiphons (“psalm tone versions”) for 2 February, the Feast of the Purification—which is also known as “Candlemas” or the Feast of the Presentation—may freely download them. The texts of the antiphons are quite beautiful.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Tempo?? • 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘞𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦
    Once, after Mass, my pastor said he really loved the hymn we did. I said: “Father, that's Holy God, We Praise Thy Name—you never heard it before?” He replied: “But the way you did it was terrific. For once, it didn't sound like a funeral dirge!” Last Sunday, our volunteer choir sang that hymn. I think the tempo was just about right … but what do you think?
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Don’t You Agree About These?
    If you want to make Jeff Ostrowski really happy, send him an email with effusive praise about the individual voice recordings for hymn #296. [Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass] They came out dazzlingly sensational, don't you agree?
    —Jeff Ostrowski

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In the place of liturgy as the fruit of development came fabricated liturgy. We abandoned the organic, living process of growth and development over centuries, and replaced it—as in a manufacturing process—with a fabrication, a banal on-the-spot product.

— ‘Pope Benedict XVI, describing the postconciliar liturgical reforms’

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