The Pressus in GABC
  • Royce Nickel
    Posts: 72
    I was just looking at the table of neumes at the beginning of the Nocturnale Romanum (2002), now on-line here:

    https://gregobase.selapa.net/source.php?id=23&images=1&index=0

    My eye was attracted to the note shapes used for the Pressus and wondered if anyone knew how to reproduce that figure using Gregorio GABC code.

    In the table of new note shapes introduced on page xii of the Liber Hymnarius (1983), there appeared a new look for the salicus, but disappointingly no new shape for the pressus. This was disappointing because the the salicus and pressus are just melodic inversions of each other, one going up and the other going down. But based on the new salicus of LH, the pressus of NR looks exactly like what one should expect. Has anyone been able to code it in GABC?
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    Can you link to an example?
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    For the pressus, try this(ggOf), which (I believe) is standard.

    The LH seems to use this(g/gf) for the pressus.

    For the salicus, one would use this(fgOh).
  • Royce Nickel
    Posts: 72
    Thank you, Charles. (ggOf) is it. I didn't know about the upper-case "O." A lower-case "o" just gives you an oriscus without the vertical stem attached to the note.

    With the salicus, the oriscus lacks the stem because, important as it is in its function of leading/pressing/leaning into the third note, it is not the principal note of the neume; the top note is, essentially having the form of a virga.

    But in the pressus, the oriscus really is the principal note of the neume, bearing the syllabic weight; hence the appropriateness of the virga-like stem attached to it.

    By the way, for the salicus, (fgoh) seems to give the same result as (fgOh), which I suppose is why I was unaware of the difference.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
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