Right to left music

[benwiggy]

Shamelessly stolen from Twitter, but I saw this. It's from the hymnal in St George's Anglican Cathedral in Jerusalem.

FYQei0PXkAAaWit.jpeg (340.95 KiB) Viewed 20828 times

I wonder what software they used for that!

I've seen people suggest using Finale, by turning the page upside down, and using upside-down symbols!

[MichelRE]

weird how the treble and bass clefs are in the right direction (wrong for that particular music, but right for regular left-to-right notation) except for the two dots on the bass clef.

[hawkin]

I wonder what software they used for that!

I've seen people suggest using Finale, by turning the page upside down, and using upside-down symbols!

This looks more like plate engraving than digital engraving. Achieving this wouldn't be that hard since the engraver would only need to flip some of the symbols.

Software-wise, I remember lilypond can also produce 'flipped' music like this.

[benwiggy]

I've got a working facsimile. Essentially, I created custom 'mirror' noteheads, and switch the stem positions. Then I exported to a graphics editor, and flipped the whole thing.
Then flipped clefs, accidentals and quaver flags back again!

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Didn't notice the F clefs dots, though! Good spot.

[John Ruggero]

The flipped dots on the bass clef in the original don't make sense, since the dots represent the two cross bars on the letter F, which are on the right side of the symbol and they aren't showing either clef in mirror image.

[benwiggy]

I guess there will inevitably be compromises using symbols designed for LTR the other way round.

[Schneider]

Hi John,

The flipped dots on the bass clef in the original don't make sense, since the dots represent the two cross bars on the letter F, which are on the right side of the symbol and they aren't showing either clef in mirror image.

Yes, but it is the traditional way to use the F clef for Arabic -- and Hebrew AFAIK -- chants.
See also : https://lsr.di.unimi.it/LSR/Item?id=903.
Cheers,
Pierre

[John Ruggero]

Hi John,

The flipped dots on the bass clef in the original don't make sense, since the dots represent the two cross bars on the letter F, which are on the right side of the symbol and they aren't showing either clef in mirror image.

Yes, but it is the traditional way to use the F clef for Arabic -- and Hebrew AFAIK -- chants.
See also : https://lsr.di.unimi.it/LSR/Item?id=903.
Cheers,
Pierre

That's interesting. But whoever originated this tradition doesn't seem to have understood the bass clef symbol and thought the "cross bars" were like prolongation dots, which deserve to be on the left side of the notes in this case. Nor does it make sense for the bass clef to be to be in partial mirror image and the treble clef not at all.

[OCTO]

I wonder what software they used for that!

I've seen people suggest using Finale, by turning the page upside down, and using upside-down symbols!

This looks more like plate engraving than digital engraving. Achieving this wouldn't be that hard since the engraver would only need to flip some of the symbols.

Software-wise, I remember lilypond can also produce 'flipped' music like this.

I would say the same. It looks as manually done, without software.