Category talk:Meters

From Oremus Hymnal

Contents 1 Sort keys for Meters 1.1 More on sort keys 1.2 Short, Common, and Long Meters 1.3 Doubled meters 1.4 Refrains, Alleluias, etc.

Sort keys for Meters

I have begun changing sort keys for meters that contain lines of ten or more syllables, motivated by hexadecimal notation. In other words, we make the subsitutions

10=a, 11=b, 12=c, 13=d, 14=e, 15=f, ...

So, for the (hypothetical) meter

13 8 10 9 48

the sort key in the corresponding Meter category should be

" d 8 a 9 4 8"

In time, I will change all the Meter categories to this format. This will greatly improve the appearance and readability of the Meters category page. -- Chuck 22:39, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

More on sort keys

In order to have the entries in Meters and Tune Names (Metrical) sort properly, use the following conventions when supplying sortkeys.

The sortkey for a Meter category with a meter having k lines has the form " n₁ n₂... n_k" where n₁,n₂,...,n_k are the numbers of syllables for the 1st,2nd,...,k-th lines. Note that a single space precedes each of the numbers.

Thus, for example, the Meter category 88 88 88 and the Metrical Tunes category 88 88 88 Tunes both have the sortkey (don't add "Tunes" to the sortkey in the second case):

" 8 8 8 8 8 8"

Note, also, that 888 888 has exactly the same sortkey as 88 88 88 (sorting does not distinguish amongst possible groupings of lines).

For lines of 10 or more syllables, use the substitutions

10=a, 11=b, 12=c, 13=d, 14=e, 15=f, 16=g, ...

Hence, the Meter category 12 9 12 9 has sortkey:

" c 9 c 9" (since c=12)

and the Meter category 10 4 66 66 10 4 has sortkey:

" a 4 6 6 6 6 a 4" (since a=10)

Short, Common, and Long Meters

Recall the abbreviations:

SM = 66 86 (Short Meter)

CM = 86 86 (Common Meter)

LM = 88 88 (Long Meter)

(all of which are iambic). Thus, for example, CM has sortkey

" 8 6 8 6"

Doubled meters

For the Meter category 87 87 D, the "D" refers to doubling the pattern (thus "87 87 D" is a shorthand for "87 87 87 87"), and the sortkey must therefore be:

" 8 7 8 7 8 7 8 7"

Similarly, SMD ("Short Meter Double") is really "66 86 66 86" and must have sortkey:

" 6 6 8 6 6 6 8 6

Refrains, Alleluias, etc.

If a meter has a word such as "Refrain" or "Alleluias" after it, append the word to the sortkey in the form

" +Refrain"

or

" +Alleluias"

in order to get the meter to sort properly. Thus, for example, 77 77 Alleluias has sortkey:

" 7 7 7 7 +Alleluias"

while SM Refrain and SM Refrain Tunes have sortkey:

" 6 6 8 6 +Refrain"

As final examples: 889 D 66 4 88 has sortkey:

" 8 8 9 8 8 9 6 6 4 8 8" ("D" doubles the "889")

12 9 12 9 Refrain has sortkey:

" c 9 c 9 +Refrain" (c=12)

87 87 D Refrain has sortkey:

" 8 7 8 7 8 7 8 7 +Refrain"

87 87 Triple has sortkey:

" 8 7 8 7 8 7 8 7 8 7 8 7" ("Triple" triples the "87 87")

12 10 10 10 11 has sortkey:

" c a a a b" (a=10, b=11, c=12)

-- Chuck Giffen_talk 21:50, 25 March 2009 (UTC)