3 LilyPond - a music typesetter
7 lilypond [options] [inputfiles]
11 LilyPond typesets music. It translates script files (mudela files or
12 F<*.ly>'s) into TeX input. Typesetting music is a complex task,
13 whereas the message that printed music conveys is usually a simple
14 one. LilyPond is a try at providing a simple interface for setting
15 music. LilyPond has these features:
21 ASCII script input, with identifiers (for music reuse),
22 customizable notenames, customizable fontset
25 multiple staffs in one score
28 multiple stafftypes (melodic, rhythmic) [broken from pl28 on]
31 beams, slurs, chords, super/subscripts (accents and text),
32 triplets, general n-plet (triplet, quadruplets, etc.), lyrics
35 multiple voices within one staff; beams optionally shared
39 multiple scores within one input file. Each score is output to
43 clef changes, meter changes, cadenza-mode, declaring markings
44 in the music, repeat bars
48 =head1 DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
50 LilyPond was written with some considerations in mind:
55 Describing a well-defined language for defining music. We call
56 this language (rather arrogantly) The Musical Definition Language
57 (mudela for short). LilyPond reads a mudela sourcefile and outputs a
58 TeX file. This musical definition language should:
63 define the musical message of the writer as unambigiously as
67 be easily readable. (as compared to, say, MusixTeX input)
70 be writable in ASCII (with a simple texteditor).
74 At this time, the language isn't yet defined precisely. It is evolving as
75 LilyPond is getting more complex.
78 We want to provide an easy-to-use interface for typesetting music in
79 its broadest sense. This interface should be intuitive from a musical
80 point of view. By broadest sense we mean: it is designed for music
81 printed left to right in staffs, using notes to designate rythm and
85 LilyPond uses MusiXTeX fonts and TeX for its output. This is not a key
86 issue: in a future version, LilyPond might bypass TeX, but at the moment
87 TeX is very convenient for producing output.
90 Generate high-quality output. Ideally it should be of a professional
91 quality. We'd like to render Herbert Chlapiks words, "Fine music
92 setting is not possible without a knowledgeable printer," untrue.
95 LilyPond does not display notes directly, nor will it be rehacked to be
96 used interactively. LilyPond writes output to a file. It will not be
97 extended to play music, or to recognize music.
99 We're thinking about adding MIDI output, though
102 LilyPond is intended to run on Unix platforms, but it should
103 be portable to any platform which can run TeX and the GNU tools
106 LilyPond is free. Commercial windows packages for setting music are
107 abundant. Free musicprinting software is scarce.
110 LilyPond is written in GNU C++. It will not be downgraded/ported to fit
121 =item B<-I,--include>=F<FILE>
123 add F<FILE> to the search path for input files.
127 debugging. LilyPond will read the file F<.dstreamrc>, which tells for what functions to produce copious debugging output.
129 =item B<-w,--warranty>,
131 Show the warranty with which LilyPond comes. (It comes with B<NO WARRANTY>!)
133 =item B<-o,--output=>F<FILE>,
135 Set the default output file to F<FILE>.
139 Show a summary of usage
143 set init file (default: symbol.ini)
145 =item B<--include, -I>
146 add to file search path.
151 DISCLAIMER & COPYING POLICY
153 LilyPond is copyright 1996,97 by its authors. LilyPond is
154 distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public
155 License. LilyPond is provided without any warranty what so ever.
156 LilyPond may be freely distributed. For further information consult
157 the GNU General Public License, which is in the file F<COPYING>
166 Unix. Any decent Linux distribution is fine. LilyPond is known to run
167 on Linux, AIX, Digital Unix and Solaris
170 GNU C++ v2.7 or better, with libg++. Version 2.7.2 or better recommended.
176 flex (2.5.1 or better)
182 The "Flower" library, which should be available from the same
183 source you got this from.
186 perl. The Makefile uses perl for trivial operations, and you
187 could tinker with it to use sed or awk.
191 LilyPond does use a lot of resources. For operation you need the following:
199 The MusixTeX fonts. (I use version T.59)
207 tar zxf flower-1.11.9.tar.gz
208 tar zxf lilypond-1.2.13.tar.gz
213 You might want to edit Variables.make to tailor the compilation flags.
214 why G++ >= 2.7? LilyPond & flower lib uses:
225 operator <?, operator >?
231 class Rational (libg++)
243 Han-Wen Nienhuys <hanwen@stack.nl>, Main author
246 Jan Nieuwenhuizen <jan@digicash.com>, Context errors, Lyrics,
247 bits of FlowerLib, general comments.
250 Mats Bengtsson <matsb@s3.kth.se>, bugfixes, testing, general comments.
254 Your name could be here! If you want to help, then take a look at the
255 SMALLISH PROJECTS section of in the file F<TODO>. Some do not involve
260 At this time, LilyPond output looks nice, but is not of production
261 quality. If you're not discouraged; this is what I type in my xterm:
263 lilypond someinput.ly
267 This is what the output looks like over here:
269 hw:~/musix/spacer$ lilypond input/maartje.ly
270 LilyPond 0.0.27/FlowerLib 1.0.23. Compile: Feb 5 1997, 00:28:13 (g++ 2.7.2)
271 Parsing ... [./init//symbol.ini[./init/dutch.ini][./init/script.ini][./init/table_sixteen.ini]][./input/maartje.ly]
272 Processing music ... Preprocessing ... Calculating ... Postprocessing ...
273 output to lelie.out...
275 hw:~/musix/spacer$ tex test
276 This is TeX, Version 3.14159 (C version 6.1)
278 Hyphenation patterns for english, dutch, loaded.
279 (lilyponddefs.tex) (lelie.uit) [1] [2] )
280 Output written on test.dvi (2 pages, 8420 bytes).
281 Transcript written on test.log.
283 hw:~/musix/spacer$ xdvi test&
286 Check out F<kortjakje.ly>, it has some comments
291 If LilyPond bombs out, then please recompile using B<-g>, and send a
292 copy of the input which causes the error and a gdb stacktrace of the
293 crash. It also helps if you can print the values of the objects. So if
297 #0 Interval::operator+= (this=0x11fffec60..)
298 at ../flower/interval.hh:50
299 #1 0x12005195c in Item::width (this=0x14008a680) at src/item.cc:39
300 #2 0x12008fdbc in itemlist_width (its=0x11fffed58 ..
304 Than it would help if you send a dump of the Interval and the Item
305 (use: C<print *this> or use LilyPond C<print()> methods).
307 This is a beta version of LilyPond. Please send your helpful comments
308 and patches to me (see AUTHORS section)
310 LilyPond is updated very frequently, the latest version is always available at:
311 ftp://pcnov095.win.tue.nl/pub/lilypond.
319 The initialisation file with symbol tables etc. It
320 includes files from the directory F<init/>.
326 There are some documentation files in the subdirectory F<Documentation/>,
327 among others: lilygut, lilyinput, error, faq,
331 LilyPond has no connection with the music package RoseGarden, other
332 than the names being similar.
337 (for a detailed changelog, see F<NEWS>)
339 LilyPond's roots lie in MPP, a preprocessor to the rather arcane
340 MusiXTeX macro package for TeX. A friend of mine, Jan Nieuwenhuizen
341 wrote the first 44 versions (0.01 to 0.44), then his program caught my
342 attention, and I was slowly sucked in to the interesting problem of
343 easily producing beautifully printed music. I contributed some
344 code. We soon realised that MPP's design was too fundamentally broken
345 to be repaired. It was decided to rewrite MPP. We debated a lot about
346 the requirements to an inputformat (fall 1995). I sat down and started
347 with a parser-first, bottom-up rewrite called mpp95 (which totally
350 After long and hard thinking, I came up with an algorithm for the
351 horizontal spacing of multiple staffs (april 1996) I coded it (and did
352 not test it). After starting with this fundamental piece, I slowly
353 added the stages which come before spacing, and after. A half year
354 later later, I had a first working version, (october 1996). I
355 announced Patchlevel 0.0.7 (or 8) to the mutex list after asking some
356 technical details on spacing; it was downloaded approximately 4 times.
357 Then I got the hang of it, and in the subsequent two months, I coded
358 until it had doubled in size (pl 23).