What do these signs mean?

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miker
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Post by miker » Fri Feb 16, 2018 2:00 am

I came across these in the Fravura Extra font, and I wondered what they mean. Could they be for measured pause: 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 seconds?
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zuill
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Post by zuill » Fri Feb 16, 2018 7:13 am

It looks like shorthand for repeated notes over a quarter note, probably (could be a longer note). So the 2 would be 2 equal notes. On a quarter, that would be 8ths. 3 would be a triplet, etc.

Just guessing based on similar notation found in Finale.

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HaraldS
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Post by HaraldS » Fri Feb 16, 2018 11:40 am

I can confirm zuill's interpretation. It's an abbreviation for writing triplets and other tuplets. I do see this kind of notation regularly in entertainment music from the late 19th/early 20th century ("Salonmusik"), when the spacing was quite dense to save paper (and engraving time).

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motet
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Post by motet » Fri Feb 16, 2018 5:32 pm

Don't the dots mean staccato?

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zuill
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Post by zuill » Fri Feb 16, 2018 5:54 pm

Not in this context, I believe. But I'm probably wrong. generally a slur is used for similar notation. For brass, isn't this similar to double and triple tonguing? I can't say for the larger numbers.

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elbsound
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Post by elbsound » Fri Feb 16, 2018 8:51 pm

I'd recommend downloading the SMuFL/Bravura PDF in these cases as it gives each music symbol a more or less self-explaining name.
And as Fravura Extra is based on Bravura, it must be documented there.
The latest PDF is version 1.18: http://www.smufl.org/files/smufl-1.18.pdf
Newer versions are only available as web pages ( https://w3c.github.io/smufl/gitbook/ )

According to the SMuFL documentation these symbols are accordion notation:
the 2 means "Ricochet (2 tones)", the 3 "Ricochet (3 tones)", etc.

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motet
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Post by motet » Fri Feb 16, 2018 9:54 pm

For the "pistol" percussion instrument, I guess. :-)

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Peter Thomsen
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Post by Peter Thomsen » Fri Feb 16, 2018 9:56 pm

FYI:
In accordion playing technique “Ricochet” mean tone repetitions done via a special type of Bellows Shake where the direction is not just {out - in}, but rather {up - down}.
With Ricochet technique it is quite easy to do triplets: {out - in - up}, {out - in - up}, &c.
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John Ruggero
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Post by John Ruggero » Sat Feb 17, 2018 6:01 pm

The stem of the note is slashed as usual to show measured repetition and the marking in question applied above it. So it is a supplement to show when measured repeated notes are tuplets rather than even note values.
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