Chironomic gesture: tikz code and SVG format
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,333
    Some of use LaTeX here to make Gregorio scores, book(-lets), and other documents. tikz is used for all sorts of drawings including mathematical and scientific drawings.

    It's thus the perfect tool to draw the basic chironomic gesture associated with the classical Solesmes method, (cf. Carroll, Technique of Gregorian Chironomy, p. 9) as I'm generating the material with LaTeX. I have omitted the ictus because it's too hard to get right apparently. (Yes, I had a little "help" for this one, but I'm satisfied with the outcome.)

    but most of you probably don't want to ever do that. So I've converted it to SVG with another LaTeX tool (thanks, StackExchange). The SVG can be opened in a program such as Inkscape and exported to a more usable graphics format as needed, or drawn on (if you want to draw the ictus for me, great, and if you export it back to tikz and share here, even better).
    chironomic_gesture.zip
    26K
  • Charles_Weaver
    Posts: 172
    Matthew, in my dissertation I also drew some chironomy curves (but the type drawn on a chant score) using Tikz. There are so many possibilities.
    Thanked by 1MatthewRoth
  • francis
    Posts: 11,241
    I am a vector artist (see http://www.franciskoerber.com/floosiga/) and can illustrate anything you might need. PM me and we can collaborate)
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,333
    @Charles_Weaver that’s my next step—I have an example .jpg in my teaching document but a native solution is more portable.

    I swore up and down that I’d never use tikz and then said to myself “wait, this is just a mathematical drawing,” and here we are.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,122
    tikz was also useful in notating gestures for Wilko Brouwers' songbook Now I Walk in Beauty (CMAA, 2017):
    image
    tikz-sample.jpg
    601 x 741 - 89K
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen MatthewRoth
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,333
    @chonak @Charles_Weaver if you have code to share I’ll take it (I know, 2017 is a long time and if you dust anything off it might not compile right away).

    I don’t necessarily need to then superimpose the curve on the chant staff as if I’m hand-drawing it or as in the above (not without doing some funky things) but I’m pretty lost in doing anything.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,122
    Here's a short LaTeX file to run. It uses tikz to draw a grid 6.5 in x 9 in and labels certain intersections with numbers corresponding to the variables "x" and "y".

    \documentclass[14pt,table]{extbook}

    \usepackage{tikz}

    \begin{document}
    \begin{tikzpicture}[overlay,remember picture]

    \draw [step=5mm,gray,very thin] (0,0) grid (6.5*2.54, -9*2.54);
    \foreach \x in {2,4,...,16}
    \foreach \y in {-2,-4,...,-22}
    {\draw (\x,\y) circle (2mm);
    \node at (\x,\y) {\x,\y};
    }

    \end{tikzpicture}

    \end{document}
    Thanked by 1MatthewRoth
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