Transcription notes for "The Musician's Companion"
by Elias Howe,
published 1843 in Boston by Elias Howe
transcribed 2015 by John Chambers <jc:trillian.mit.edu>
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This collection is in 3 volumes, which Elias Howe called "Parts". They are
under the EliasHowe directory in subdirectories called "MusiciansCompanionPN"
where N is a digit (1-3). This file is linked into all of them, to simplify
adding to these notes.
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The individual tunes are in files with the name VPPPN_Tune_Title.abc, where V
is the volume ("part") number, PPP is the page number (1-150), N is the tune
number within the page, and the title has underscores separating the words.
This gives a very readable system that puts the tunes in the same order as in
the book. For the cotillions, I've appended "tune" and the tune number that's
to the left of the first staff, to help in associating each tune with its
position within the set (or SETT, as the book has it).
A number of tunes are transcribed in two version, with _V1 or _V2 appended to
the file name. The V2 versions use ABC 2.0 features such as voice overlays,
crescendo/diminuendo symbols, tremolos, and other things not present in early
versions of ABC. The V1 versions follow ABC 1.* rules, and attempt to handle
voice overlays with chords; tremolos are written out; "cresc..." and "dim..."
are used and so on. At the time of transcription (late 2015), there is still
a lot of ABC software that doesn't handle the ABC 2.* extensions, to the V1
files should work better. In a few cases, the V1 versions actually produce
slightly more-readable printed music than the V2 versions. These files also
have '-' or '=' instead of the '_' after the initial number, for ease of
distinguishing them in the Makefiles that are used to create the large "all
tunes" files.
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Most of these tunes have been proofread by using the original abc2ps or my
own jcabc2ps clone for the V1 files, and Jef Moine's abcm2ps for the V2
files. Some have been tested with other software, such as abc2midi (to check
the transcription of complex repeats).
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This collection doesn't use begin-repeat symbols, only the end-repeats are
used. This has sometimes been copied in the transcription, mostly when the
intended repeat pattern isn't clear, though it doesn't agree with the usual
modern usage. In many cases, initial repeats or double bars have been added
to clarify the start of the strain. In many cases, the correct repeat pattern
isn't obvious, and the ABC shows the original notation as closely as is
possible. In any case, musicians should determine the repeat patterns by
working with a dance leader. A lot of the dance terms are known to represent
somewhat different figures, and sometimes different repeat patterns are
needed for different groups. This is especially true with groups of
experienced "vintage" dancers that may use more complex figures.
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Most of the transcriptions here have the same staff breaks as the original.
Some have too many notes per staff line at to be printed this way even in our
small-scale (0.50) format for proofreading, so the staffs have been
reformatted. Usually this in a multiple of 2 or 4 bars, but sometimes
otherwise for tunes with irregular phrasing. In any case, long staffs are
normally transcribed as multiple 4-bar (or 2-bar) lines, with '\' used to
join them together for making PS/PDF/PNG/... images. This is normal practice
in ABC, to prevent damage by software like mailers that like to wrap long
lines at 72 or 80 chars to make them fit on 1970-era screens.
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The dances are mostly transcribed with one line of text per phrase, usually
split at the commas and periods. This is solely for convenience in proof
reading, and should be printed however is convenient for the modern readers.
Oddly, the dance descriptions in the book are mostly between the first and
second staffs. Below the tune would be more usual. But this is up to the
music formatter that you use, and has no musical significance.
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This collection uses "D.C." a lot, usually after the double bars or final
repeat symbols. Much ABC software likes to position "D.C." with the "D" above
the final bar line, sticking out to the right of the staffs, and this causes
problems on some printers or screens. To help fix this problem, "D.C." in the
ABC is usually placed before/above the last symbol (note or rest) before the
bar line. Sometimes a final y pseudo-rest is introduced, or a final dotted
note is transcribed as two tied notes, to get the "D.C." positioned close to
the right edge. Again, this has no musically significance, and publishers are
notoriously sloppy in such positioning; it's solely to encourage software to
position the "D.C." inside the display/printable area so it's visible.
Similar comments apply to the occasional "FINE" above a double bar line. The
!fine! notation may be used in a V2 versions of a tune, but this isn't
reliable in much ABC software (and usually doesn't honor the capitalization),
so I haven't used it much. Similarly for Coda symbols.
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