This element may also indicate a short pause or break for instruments *not* requiring breath. In such cases, it functions as a guide to phrasing. The starting point of the breath mark may be indicated by either a startid, tstamp, tstamp.ges, or tstamp.real attribute. It is a semantic error not to specify a starting point attribute.
Since the breath mark does not disrupt the normal tempo of a performance, it has no directly encode-able duration.
The default value for place for a breath mark is "above". Unless indicated by other attributes, a breath mark will be rendered as a comma-like symbol above the top line of the staff.
<elementSpec ident="breath" module="MEI.cmn">
<gloss versionDate="2022-05-18" xml:lang="en">breath mark</gloss>
<desc xml:lang="en">An indication of a point at which the performer on an instrument requiring
breath (including the voice) may breathe.</desc>
<classes>
<memberOf key="att.common"/>
<memberOf key="att.facsimile"/>
<memberOf key="att.breath.log"/>
<memberOf key="att.breath.vis"/>
<memberOf key="att.breath.ges"/>
<memberOf key="att.breath.anl"/>
<memberOf key="model.controlEventLike.cmn"/>
</classes>
<content>
<rng:empty/>
</content>
<constraintSpec ident="breath_start-type_attributes_required" scheme="schematron">
<constraint>
<sch:rule context="mei:breath">
<sch:assert test="@startid or @tstamp or @tstamp.ges or @tstamp.real">Must have one of the
attributes: startid, tstamp, tstamp.ges or tstamp.real.</sch:assert>
</sch:rule>
</constraint>
</constraintSpec>
<remarks xml:lang="en">
<p>This element may also indicate a short pause or break for instruments *not* requiring
breath. In such cases, it functions as a guide to phrasing. The starting point of
the breath
mark may be indicated by either a <att>startid</att>, <att>tstamp</att>,
<att>tstamp.ges</att>, or <att>tstamp.real</att> attribute. It is a semantic error not to
specify a starting point attribute.</p>
<p>Since the breath mark does not disrupt the normal tempo of a performance, it has no
directly encode-able duration.</p>
<p>The default value for <att>place</att> for a breath mark is "above". Unless indicated by
other attributes, a breath mark will be rendered as a comma-like symbol above the
top line
of the staff.</p>
</remarks>
</elementSpec>