Where to place grace note beams under beams.

[rpatters1]

I have this example of music:

The question is which bar to the grace note beams go in. My exporter is currently putting the main beam and all 3 grace note beams in the first measure. Is this an error? Should the grace note beams be in the measures where they start?

(To be clear, I hope it is not an error. I could make a case for either way, and I would hope MNX would allow either.)

[adrianholovaty]

Beams are encoded in the first measure in which they appear, so it sounds like your exporter is doing the right thing.

(From the part-measure object: "Beams that are rendered in multiple measures (i.e., beams that cross barlines) are encoded in the first measure in which they appear.")

Technically, since a beam's events are specified via IDs, there's nothing stopping a beam from being defined within measure X but containing events that all exist in measure Y. Perhaps you could validate this in your MNX validator. :)

[rpatters1]

(From the part-measure object: "Beams that are rendered in multiple measures (i.e., beams that cross barlines) are encoded in the first measure in which they appear.")

Just to be clear: this restriction applies only to the primary beam, correct? It seems like secondary beams would have to be able to start in any subsequent measure when the primary beam crosses barlines.

[rpatters1]

The thing is, technically, the grace note beams (except for the first one) do not start in measure 1, but that is where my encoder is putting them. From the standpoint of the spec, are the grace note beams part of the larger beam (in which case putting them in measure 1 is correct) or are they independent of the larger beam (in which case the second two grace note beams should be in measure 2.)

Or does the spec care?

I could certainly add a test to the validator to verify whatever the rule is. I have kept it up to date, but I haven't released it in awhile. Actually, all the validation code is now in my dom library and the validator program is just a shell. If there is interest in another release, I can certainly make one.

[adrianholovaty]

I don't think the spec says anything explicitly about this, but my two cents are that grace note beams are not considered part of a containing beam. They're an independent entity, and the fact that they're within a larger beam is a coincidence and not semantically meaningful.

If that makes sense as a general philosophy, I'd be happy to add it to the spec.

[rpatters1]

I tend to agree with you (thought it complicates my exporter). Finale treats this as a single beamed sequence. But it is probably an outlier.

[clnoel]

It would extremely complicate our input if grace note beams were considered part of the whole beam. We'd prefer separate, please.

[rpatters1]

Just to be clear, I was never asking for grace note beams to be incorporated into main beams. I was just trying to clarify which measure they should appear in. (Given the example.) It seems the consensus is that no matter the configuration, beams should be placed in the measures in which they start. I am fully on board with this.