Voicing categories

[CHGiffen]

Just for a trial (it may not fly), I put DPL code on the category pages for 2 part choral music and 3 part choral music which actually lists all the works in 2 or 3 parts (respectively), grouped by the particular voicing. This my be of help to Richard and others.

More comments tomorrow - it's very late here.

Chuck

[vaarky]

Carlos wrote:

And the way that the Voicing template will be used depends ultimately on the result of this discussion

Let's start with the simplest thing to solve and work our way more complex tasks. We can solve world peace first, then this voicing discussion, then apply it to the templates using a bot.

[Richard Mix]

Hi Carlos,
It's not only a question of searching by number alone: I just tried adding 7|SATB to The Bard of Eve and then went to Multicat search, but "number" is overridden by "voicing", that is, I got results for 4|SATB. Is there any present obstacle to having Number functional for such pages as use the template already?

There seem to be two choices for what Number would be used for:

1) minimum singers to cover every note, or non-optional note, however defined. This is more informative than SATBdiv, but less informative than SsAaTB or S(S)A(A)TB. Should antiphonal works be 4|SATB.SATB?

or 2) a means of lumping search results from AAT, TBB, SSA & other transposable voicings. It would be important to be able to exclude accompanied results.

Or do we need two numbers?

btw Chuck, I like the look of the 3 part page! It doesnt yet seem to be a Multicat seach option, though.

[carlos]

I just tried adding 7|SATB to The Bard of Eve and then went to Multicat search, but "number" is overridden by "voicing", that is, I got results for 4|SATB. Is there any present obstacle to having Number functional for such pages as use the template already?

Richard, you're right, currently the number added to the Voicing template has no functional use, it's just displayed on the works page as is. With the change suggested, it would be used to categorize the works in one of the "X-part choral music" categories. So, a SSAATBB work would then be included in Category:SSAATBB (as is now) and also in Category:7 part choral music.

This new use will be equivalent to your suggestion #2:

2) a means of lumping search results from AAT, TBB, SSA & other transposable voicings. It would be important to be able to exclude accompanied results.

[vaarky]

Having a way to search for all pieces for 7-part voicing with add'l search limitations, but without having to serially search each of the different configurations (esp. where SSAATTB and SAT.SATB have to be searched separately) would be a major win from my perspective. This would be especially the case if the particular piece's voicing were displayed in parens next to it. This is useful for people who have forces to cover and combination of voicing that involves, say, 4 different divisi for women but only 3 for men.

[CHGiffen]

In what I hope will prove to be a useful (or at least constructive) adjunct to our present voicing scheme, I've started making some Voicing lists, ie. lists for one or more choirs with a specified aggregate disposition of voice parts.

For example, the disposition SSAATTB presently has single choir works as well as works voiced SSA.ATTB and SAT.SATB. Now, if one wishes to find all works requiring 2 soprano, 2 alto, 2 tenor and 1 bass parts, one only has to go to Works for SSAATTB voices to see the comprehensive list.

In order to make this work, one must make each multiple choir voicing category (eg. SSAT.ATBB) a subcategory of its aggregate voicing category (SSAATTBB in this case). I've done this for all the 7 part voicings, and plan to tackle 8 part voicings next. I'd be interested to hear what others think of this.

For minor subdivisions within one or more parts, I'm inclined to support adding a category designation "divisi", separate from the voicing category. Thus, Category:SATB and Category:Divisi would imply that a work is bascially for SATB mixed voices with minor divisi in one or more parts. I do not think that it is feasible for us to try to specify (via categories) all possible (minor) divisi possibilities within a single voicing SATB subdivided as S(S)ATB, SA(A)TB, SAT(T)B, SATB(B), S(S)A(A)TB, S(S)AT(T)B, S(S)ATB(B), SA(A)T(T)B, SA(A)TB(B), SAT(T)B(B), S(S)A(A)T(T)B, S(S)A(A)TB(B), S(S)AT(T)B(B), SA(A)T(T)B(B), or S(S)A(A)T(T)B(B) are simply far too many (15) possibilities for SATB divisi.

Chuck

[bobnotts]

This makes a lot of sense to me, Chuck. It should save users a lot of time.

[vaarky]

That's a good solution, thanks!

[Richard Mix]

2 & 3 part voicings have been well served; is there a way to make pieces appear on [[Category:7 part choral music]] & [[Category:9 part choral music]] as well as the subcategories (many of them empty)?