The <kind> element

Parent element: <harmony>

Kind indicates the type of chord. Degree elements can then add, subtract, or alter from these starting points

The attributes are used to indicate the formatting of the symbol. Since the kind element is the constant in all the harmony-chord groups that can make up a polychord, many formatting attributes are here.

The use-symbols attribute is yes if the kind should be represented when possible with harmony symbols rather than letters and numbers. These symbols include:

major: a triangle, like Unicode 25B3
minor: -, like Unicode 002D
augmented: +, like Unicode 002B
diminished: °, like Unicode 00B0
half-diminished: ø, like Unicode 00F8

For the major-minor kind, only the minor symbol is used when use-symbols is yes. The major symbol is set using the symbol attribute in the degree-value element. The corresponding degree-alter value will usually be 0 in this case.

The text attribute describes how the kind should be spelled in a score. If use-symbols is yes, the value of the text attribute follows the symbol. The stack-degrees attribute is yes if the degree elements should be stacked above each other. The parentheses-degrees attribute is yes if all the degrees should be in parentheses. The bracket-degrees attribute is yes if all the degrees should be in a bracket. If not specified, these values are implementation-specific. The alignment attributes are for the entire harmony-chord group of which this kind element is a part.

The text attribute may use strings such as “13sus” that refer to both the kind and one or more degree elements. In this case, the corresponding degree elements should have the print-object attribute set to “no” to keep redundant alterations from being displayed.