Stein-Zimmermann accidentals

Dorico
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Hi! Not sure if this is the best place for this discussion, but it’s the best place I could think of. Apologies for the rather unorthodox request to follow:

I’m currently doing some research on microtonal notation following my master’s thesis which has led me down a rabbit hole into the history of microtonal accidentals in notation software. I’m trying to figure out exactly why the four Stein-Zimmermann accidentals were listed in their own section as a unit in the SMuFL (as early as v0.5 on July 8, 2013). The end goal is to figure out the first place these symbols were listed as a set and the first place they were called the “Stein-Zimmermann” accidentals. I’m guessing the naming is between the SMuFL and Secor and Keenan’s Sagittal article, but the article has been revised a couple of times since its original publication in 2006 and hasn’t always included a mention of Stein and Zimmermann.

As far as the symbols, I know Sibelius was using these four specific symbols as early as v5.0 in 2007, but I can’t verify if they were there in any earlier version as I don’t have access to any reference guides for anything before 5.0, just the update notes. Microtonal playback was added as a plugin in Sibelius v1.4 so I’m assuming the accidentals have been in the software since then, but I really am unsure. I tried looking into the history of the Sibelius fonts, but I can’t find anywhere that has archived character sheets from older versions of the fonts for me to track down when they were added. I haven’t even started to try to track down the accidentals’ implementation in Finale since I’m almost certain it was only on the font side, and each of the fonts had certainly been updated several times over since the symbols would have been first added.

I’ve read through Gardner Read’s 20th-Century Microtonal Notation, which is listed as a source for the SMuFL, which has been pretty helpful; there’s just a couple small puzzle pieces I’m missing between that and the implementation of these specific accidentals in notation software. Anyone who’s able to point me in any directions that could help with my search would be amazing!

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Since @dspreadbury was instrumental in the SMuFL definition, I’m sure he will respond.

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I would have thought that the SMuFL standard was an attempt to represent already existing notation, rather than specifying new ones.

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Yeah, that’s why I wanted to start with the SMuFL since I know the name almost certainly from somewhere before there, but I’m not able to figure out exactly what source.

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Brief update: I contacted Dave Keenan (of Sagittal) and he was very kind in his reply clarifying that he and George Secor were the ones who attributed the symbols to Stein and Zimmermann, based on Read’s book, and they worked some with Daniel Spreadbury in the early stages of the SMuFL on attributing a bunch of microtonal accidentals.

Still have some questions about the history of their use in notation software, as this predates their attributions (in 2012, according to Keenan) and the advent of the SMuFL, but that answered a good chunk of my questions!

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