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11 Subject: LilyPond 2.0 - make beautiful music prints
14 Dear music enthousiasts,
17 LilyPond version 2.0 was released today. LilyPond is an automated
18 music notation system: it is used to make gorgeous sheet music. It is
19 libre software ("open source"), and available for most Unix flavors,
20 including Linux and MacOS X, and MS Windows.
22 Use it for your music too!
24 For this version, we have dramatically simplified many parts of the
25 syntax, making it easier to use than ever before. Other improvements
26 include quarter-tone accidentals, and conditional inclusion of music
27 fragments. With version 2.0, we have a solid platform for working on
28 notation and typography features for coming versions.
30 Downloads, examples and documentation are available from the website,
34 A big thank-you goes out to our hackers and bughunters: Mats
35 Bengtsson, Heikki Junes, Juergen Reuter, Antonio Palama, Benjamin
36 Milde, Daniel Berjon Diez, David Bobroff, David Rayleigh Arnold, Erik
37 Ronstroem, Fabio dos Santos, Fodor Bertalan, Frederic Bron, Graham
38 Percival, Ian Bailey-Mortimer, John Williams, Josza Marton, Marco
39 Caliari, Matthieu Amiguet, Michael Welsh Duggan, Patrick Atamaniuk,
40 Paul Scott, Pedro Kroeger, Peter Lutek, Richard Schoeller, Thorkil
41 Wolvendans, and Werner Trobin
48 Han-Wen Nienhuys & Jan Nieuwenhuizen
49 (core development team)
53 <h2>New features in 2.0 since 1.8</h2>
57 <li>Crescendos can now be drawn dotted or dashed.
59 <li>Quarter tones are now supported. They are entered by suffixing
60 <code>ih</code> for a half-sharp and <code>eh</code> for a half-flat. Hence, the
61 following is an ascending list of pitches:
63 <pre class="example"> ceses ceseh ces ceh c cih cis cisih cisis
66 <li>The following constructs have been removed from the syntax:
68 <pre class="example"> \duration #SCHEME-DURATION
70 \outputproperty <var>func</var> <var>symbol</var> = <var>value</var>
73 <p>For <code>\outputproperty</code>, the following may be substituted:
75 <pre class="example"> \applyoutput #(outputproperty-compatibility <var>func</var>
76 <var>symbol</var> <var>value</var>)
79 </p><li>Clefs may now be transposed arbitrarily, for example
81 <pre class="example"> \clef "G_8"
86 <li>The syntax for chords and simultaneous music have changed.
89 <pre class="example"> <<var>pitches</var>>
92 <p>while simultaneous music is entered as
94 <pre class="example"> <<<var>..music list..</var>>>
97 <p>In effect, the meanings of both have been swapped relative to their 1.8
98 definition. The syntax for lists in <code>\markup</code> has changed
99 alongside, but figured bass mode was not changed, i.e.:
101 <pre class="example"> \markup { \center <<var>..list of markups..</var>> }
102 \figure { <<var>figures</var>> }
105 <p>As chords the more often used than simultaneous music, this change will
108 </p><li>Each music expression can now be tagged, to make different printed
109 versions from the same music expression. In the following example,
110 we see two versions of a piece of music, one for the full score, and
111 one with cue notes for the instrumental part:
113 <pre class="example"> << \tag #'part <<
114 { c4 f2 g4 } % in the part, we have cue-notes
116 \tag #'score R1 % in the score: only a rest
120 <p>The same can be applied to articulations, texts, etc.: they are
123 <pre class="example"> -\tag #<var>your-tags</var>
126 <p>to an articulation, for example,
128 <pre class="example"> c4-\tag #'with-fingerings -4 -\tag #'with-strings \6
131 <p>This defines a note, which has a conditional fingering and a
132 string-number indication.
134 </p><li>The settings for chord-fingering are more flexible. You can specify a
135 list where fingerings may be placed, eg.
137 <pre class="example"> \property Voice.fingeringOrientations = #'(left down)
140 <p>This will put the fingering for the lowest note below the chord, and the
143 </p><li>The script previously known as <code>ly2dvi</code> has been renamed to
144 <code>lilypond</code>. The binary itself is now installed as
145 <code>lilypond-bin</code>.
147 <li>Markup text (ie. general text formatting) may now be used for lyrics too.
149 <li>Two new commands for grace notes have been added, <code>\acciaccatura</code>
150 and <code>\appoggiatura</code>,
152 <pre class="example"> \appoggiatura f8 e4
156 <p>Both reflect the traditional meanings of acciaccatura and appogiatura,
157 and both insert insert a slur from the first grace note to the main
160 </p><li>Layout options for grace notes are now stored in a context property,
161 and may now be set separately from musical content.
163 <li>The <code>\new</code> command will create a context with a unique
164 name automatically. Hence, for multi-staff scores, it is no longer
165 necessary to invent arbitrary context names. For example, a two-staff
166 score may be created by
168 <pre class="example"> \simultaneous {
169 \new Staff { <var>notes for 1st staff</var> }
170 \new Staff { <var>notes for 2nd staff</var> }
174 <li>Octave checks make octave errors easier to correct.
177 <pre class="example"> \octave <var>pitch</var>
180 <p>This checks that <var>pitch</var> (without octave) yields <var>pitch</var> (with
181 octave) in \relative mode. If not, a warning is printed, and the
184 </p><li>All articulations must now be entered postfix. For example,
186 <pre class="example"> c8[( d8])
189 <p>is a pair of beamed slurred eighth notes.
191 </p><li>The definition of <code>\relative</code> has been simplified. Octaves are
192 now always propagated in the order that music is entered. In the
195 <pre class="example"> PRE
196 \repeat "unfold" 3 BODY \alternative { ALT1 ALT2 }
200 <p>the octave of BODY is based on PRE, the starting octave of ALT1 on
201 BODY, the starting octave of ALT2 on ALT1, and the starting octave of
204 <p>The same mechanism is used for all other music expressions, except the
205 chord. Backwards compatibility is retained through a special program option,
208 <pre class="example"> #(ly:set-option 'old-relative)
211 </p><li>Windows users can double click a <code>.ly</code> file to process and view
212 it automagically through the new <code>lily-wins</code> frontend.