Template:Music/doc

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This is a documentation subpage for Template:Music (see that page for the template itself).
It contains usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original template page.

Contents

[edit] Benefits

The template renders Western music notation of various types into Wikipedia.

[edit] Accidentals

It correctly renders Unicode sharps (♯) flats (♭) and natural signs (♮) in Internet Explorer which would otherwise display empty squares. The choice of fonts also improves the rendering in other browsers on Microsoft Windows such as Mozilla Firefox. See the table below to compare the results in your current browser.

Without template With template
Flat ♭ ♭
Natural ♮ ♮
Sharp ♯ ♯
double flat 𝄫 double flat
double sharp 𝄪 double sharp

The template also makes use of SVG to display double flat (double flat) and double sharp (double sharp) signs since the corresponding Unicode characters are not widely supported.

[edit] Examples

[edit] Flat sign

{{music|flat}}, {{music|b}}, or {{music|♭}} renders ♭
{{music|doubleflat}}, {{music|bb}}, or {{music|𝄫}} renders double flat

[edit] Natural sign

{{music|natural}} or {{music|♮}} renders ♮

[edit] Sharp sign

{{music|sharp}}, {{music|#}} or {{music|♯}} renders ♯
{{music|doublesharp}}, {{music|##}} or {{music|𝄪}} renders double sharp

[edit] Notes and Rests

use {{music|X}} to get:
wholenote, whole, or semibreve whole note
halfnote, half, or minim half note
quarternote, quartet, or crotchet quarter note
eighthnote, eighth, or quaver eighth note
sixteenthnote, sixteenth, or semiquaver sixteenth note
(whole and half rests are not implemented yet)
quarterrest or crotchetrest quarter rest
eighthrest or quaverrest eighth rest

Note that some browsers support ♩ (♩) and ♪ (♪) for quarter and eighth notes, but since the display is often ugly and does not match any of the other (non-supported) notes and rests, this template does not use these characters.

Sample text: In place of the single whole note (whole note), Chopin writes eighth rest half note quarter note eighth note, completely changing the profile of the music.

[edit] Clefs

use {{music|X}} to get:
treble or trebleclef treble clef
gclef G clef
altoclef alto clef
tenorclef tenor clef
cclef C clef
bassclef bass clef
fclef F clef

Note that there is no graphical distinction between trebleclef and gclef; alto, tenor, and cclef; bassclef and fclef. The difference is to preserve a difference in meaning and to make the caption text (for screen readers) different.

[edit] Scale degrees

Scale degrees are often represented as Arabic numerals with a hat on them. So that the root of a scale would be scale degree 1. This template supports this usage with {{music|scale|1}}. Scale degrees 1-8 and 9 are supported. So a descending tetrachord could be written as scale degree 4-scale degree 3-scale degree 2-scale degree 1

[edit] Goals

  1. The template code should be easy to remember.
  2. The template should improve cross-browser support for music symbols.
  3. The template should reduce edit squabbles between Unicode sharps and flats versus ASCII #'s and b's. It should not be used to create new edit wars.