smufl
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w3c
Add reverse accent to articulation
I suggest adding a mirrored version of the standard accent. Among others, Danish composer Peter Heise (1830–1879) frequently uses it (see example from his third string quartet).
Is this just a handwritten variation? If so, SMuFL usually doesn't include them, except perhaps as suggested graphical variants; for instance, the much much more common reverse flagged notes aren't included as far as I know. Or does it have musical signfiicance?
Oh, I see your point. I don't know of any printed examples (but I haven't done any research on that). Whether it has musical significance or not is not entirely clear, so it may very well be just a graphical variant. In that case, the only reason to include it may be that it would enable us to also create the fairly common short 'messa di voce' sign <> as used by Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Elgar and others (see Clive Brown, Classical & Romantic Performing Practice 1750–1900, pp. 126ff). I see that the 'normal' messa di voce is implemented as a single glyph in SMuFL, though, so maybe the short one would also be regarded as a single-glyph marking.
Actually there are reversed accents in printed editions, mostly in the Lied repertoire. So I recommend to have them in SMuFL too.
This comes from Pauline Viardot Garcia's ''Ruhige, heilige Nacht''
https://digital.blb-karlsruhe.de/id/6478117
I think it should still fit into normal Articulation range, but we can add them into Articulation supplement.
How does this really differ from the regular, non-reversed accent? Is it truly a distinct musical symbol, or would it be more suitable to encode it as a recommended stylistic alternate of the existing accent?
I thought about this and discussed it with some colleagues. Although it wasn't used too frequently, it indeed seems to be different from a regular accent. So far it was only seen in parts, that actually can perform it the way it suggests, i.e. in singing voices and strings. The referenced source above actually also uses the regular accent (in the piano part).
Another thing to add here: Basically for all combined glyphs are glyphs of the individual parts available. Not so with those from the Articulation supplement (U+ED40–U+ED4F) because the reversed accent is yet missing.
Adding this one as reference https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/125909/name-and-meaning-of-mirrored-accent-sign