@c -*-texinfo-*-
+
@node Introduction
@chapter Introduction
-LilyPond is a program to print sheet music. If you have used notation
-programs before, then the way to use this program might be surprising
-at first sight: in order to print music you have to enter musical
-codes in a file. Then you run the program on the file, and the music
-is produced without any further intervention. For example, something
-like this:
-
-
-@lilypond[fragment,verbatim, relative 1, intertext="produces this:
-
-"]
-\key c \minor r8 c16 b c8 g as c16 b c8 d | g,4
-@end lilypond
+There are a lot of programs that let you print sheet music with a
+computer. Unfortunately, most of them do not do good job. Most
+computer printouts have a bland, mechanical look, and are unpleasant
+to play from. If you agree with us on that, than you will like
+LilyPond: we have tried to capture the original look of hand-engraved
+music in a program: we have tuned our algorithms, font-designs, and
+program settings to make the output match that of the old editions
+that we love to see and love to play from.
-@cindex encoding music
-
-Encoding music using letters and digits may appear strange,
-intimidating or even clumsy at first. Nevertheless, when you take the
-effort to learn the codes and the program you will find that it is
-easier than it seems. Entering music can be done quickly, and you
-never have to remember how you made the program do something
-complicated: it is all in the input code, and you only have to read
-the file to see how it works. Moreover, you are rewarded with very
-nicely looking output.
-
-In this chapter, we will explain the reasoning behind this unusual
-design, and how this approach affects you as a user.
@menu
-* Batch processing::
-* Music engraving::
-* Computerized typography ::
+* Music notation and engraving::
+* Notation and engraving in LilyPond::
+* Typography and program architecture::
* Music representation::
* Example applications::
* About this manual::
@end menu
-@node Batch processing
-@section Batch processing
-
-@cindex GUI
-@cindex Batch
-@cindex UNIX
-
-LilyPond is a @emph{batch} program. To use, one enters commands in a
-file, and the program is run on that file. The output is produced
-without requiring any user-interaction.
-
-When we started developing LilyPond, we were still studying at the
-university. We were interested in music notation, not as publishers
-or musicians, but as programmers and scientists. We wanted to figure
-to what extent formatting sheet music could be automated. Back then
-GUIs were not as ubiquitous as they are today, and we were immersed in
-the UNIX operating system, where it is very common to use compilers to
-achieve computing tasks. So, our computerized music engraving
-experiment took on the form of a compiler.
-
-
-@ignore
-@cindex free software
-@cindex sharing software
-
-You can freely use, modify and redistribute LilyPond. This choice was
-also motivated by our academic background. In the scientific community
-it has always been a tradition to share knowledge, also if that
-knowledge was packaged as software. One of the most visible groups
-that stimulated this philosophy, was the Free Software Foundation,
-whose popular GNU project aimed to replace closed and proprietary
-computing solutions with free (as in ``Libre'') variants. We jumped on
-that bandwagon, and released LilyPond as free software. That is the
-reason that you can get LilyPond at no cost and without any strings
-attached.
-@end ignore
-
-
-@node Music engraving
-@section Music engraving
+@node Music notation and engraving
+@section Music notation and engraving
@cindex engraving
@cindex typography
-Making sheet music may seem trivial at first (``you print 5 lines, and
-then put in the notes at different heights''), @emph{music engraving},
-i.e. professional music typography, is in another ballpark. The term
-`music engraving' derives from the traditional process of music
+Making sheet music may seem trivial, ``you print 5 lines, and then put
+in the notes at different heights'', but as you learn more of it, the
+opposite turns out to be true. One has to master two difficult
+tasks. First, one has to master music notation: the science of knowing
+which symbols to use when what. Second, one has to master music
+engraving: the art of placing symbols such that the result looks
+pleasing.
+
+Common music notation has its roots in the medieval time. In this
+time, monks started to write down hints that indicated how their
+sacred music was sung. These hints, neumes, gradually became simpler,
+and at some point became the note heads. Lines were added to the
+neumes, to indicate a reference pitch, which later became the staff.
+Over many centuries, improvements and extensions were added, while
+other concepts disappeared. For example, the neume notation did not
+have an explicit notion of rhythm, but it did have @emph{custodes},
+symbols at the end of the line to indicate the starting pitch of the
+next line. Mensural notation, a notation where each note head takes a
+fixed amount of time, came into being together with the rise of
+counterpoint in the early renaissance. The graphic language of
+notation is still under development; the innovations of contemporary
+music require still newer and more complex notations.
+
+The term music engraving derives from the traditional process of music
printing. Only a few decades ago, sheet music was made by cutting and
stamping the music into zinc or pewter plates, mirrored. The plate
would be inked, and the depressions caused by the cutting and stamping
-would hold ink. An image was formed by pressing paper to the
-plate. Stamping and cutting was completely done by hand. Making
+would hold ink. An image was formed by pressing paper to the
+plate. The stamping and cutting was completely done by hand. Making
corrections was cumbersome, so engraving had to be done correctly in
-one go. As you can imagine this was a highly specialized skill, much
-more so than the traditional process of printing books.
+one go. Of course, this was a highly specialized skill, much more so
+than the traditional process of printing books.
@cindex craftsmanship
@cindex master
-In the traditional German craftsmanship six years of full-time
+In the traditional German system of craftsmanship six years of full-time
training, more than any other craft, were required before a student
could call himself a master of the art. After that many more years of
practical experience were needed to become an established music
advanced software, music requires lots of manual fine tuning before it
is acceptable for publication.
-When we wanted to write a computer program to create music typography,
-we encountered the first problem: there were no sets of musical
-symbols available: either they were not available freely, or they did
-not look well to our taste. Not let down, we decided to try font
-design ourselves. We created a font of musical symbols, relying on
-nice printouts of hand-engraved music. The experience helped develop
-a typographical taste, and it made us appreciate subtle design
-details. Without that experience, we would not have realized the
-shortcomings of the fonts were that we admired at first.
+Sheet music is performance material: everything is done to aid the
+musician in letting him perform better. Music often is far away from
+its reader---it might be on a music stand. To make it clearly
+readable, traditionally printed sheet music always uses bold symbols,
+on heavy staff lines, and is printed on large sheets of paper. This
+``strong'' look is also present in the horizontal spacing. To
+minimize the number of page breaks, (hand-engraved) sheet music is
+spaced very tightly. Yet, by a careful distribution of white space,
+the feeling of balance is retained, and a clutter of symbols is
+avoided.
+
+
+@node Notation and engraving in LilyPond
+@section Notation and engraving in LilyPond
+
+Common music notation encompasses such a wide scope of music, and
+therefore inherently is complex: there are many rules, and for every
+rule there are exceptional situations where they do not apply. The
+result is that LilyPond cannot support each and every form of notation
+in existence. Rather, we focus on a specific style and idiom: we take
+inspiration from late-romantic music printed at the beginning of the
+20th century. Most of the contemporary music after that, and most of
+the music going back to 17th century can be written in this
+idiom. That is not a fundamental limit, though. There is support for
+some modern notation like clusters, and older notation, such as white
+mensural and gregorian notation, is being worked on.
+
+We have used these observations in designing LilyPond. The images
+below shows the flat symbol. On the left, a scan from a Henle edition,
+which was made by a computer, and in the center is the flat from a
+B@"{a}renreiter edition of the same music. The left scan illustrates
+typical flaws of computer print: the symbol is much lighter, the staff
+lines are thinner, and the glyph has a straight layout with sharp
+corners. By contrast, the B@"{a}renreiter has a bold and almost
+voluptuous rounded look. Our flat symbol is designed after, among
+others, this one. It is tuned it to harmonize with the thickness of
+our staff lines, which are also much thicker than Henle's lines.
+
+@multitable @columnfractions .1 .3 .3 .3
+@item @tab
+@iftex
+@image{henle-flat-bw,4cm}
+@end iftex
+@html
+<img src=henle-flat-bw.png>
+@end html
+
+@tab
+@iftex
+@image{baer-flat-bw,4cm}
+@end iftex
+@html
+<img src=baer-flat-bw.png>
+@end html
+
+@tab
+@iftex
+@image{lily-flat-bw,4cm}
+@end iftex
+@html
+<img src=lily-flat-bw.png>
+@end html
+@item
+Henle (2000)
+@tab
+B@"{a}renreiter (1950)
+@tab
+LilyPond Feta font (2003)
+
+@end multitable
-@lilypond[noindent]
-#(define magfact 3.0)
-\score { \notes { as'2 r4 }
- \paper {
- raggedright = ##t
- \translator {
- \ScoreContext
- AccidentalPlacement \override #'right-padding = #3.0
- StaffSymbol \override #'transparent = ##t
- Clef \override #'transparent = ##t
- TimeSignature \override #'transparent = ##t
- Accidental \override #'font-magnification = #magfact
- Rest \override #'font-magnification = #magfact
- NoteHead \override #'font-magnification = #magfact
- Stem \override #'transparent = ##t
- } } }
-@end lilypond
@cindex musical symbols
@cindex font
@cindex blackness
@cindex balance
-
-The figure above shows a few notable glyphs. For example, the
-vertical stem of the flat symbol should be brushed slightly,
-i.e. becoming wider at the top. the half-notehead is not elliptic but
-slightly diamond shaped. Fine endings, such as the one on the bottom
-of the quarter rest, should not end in sharp points, but rather in
-rounded shapes. Taken together, the blackness of the font must be
-carefully tuned together with the thickness of lines, beams and slurs
-to give a strong yet balanced overall impression.
-
-Producing a strong and balanced look is the real challenge of music
-engraving. It is a recurring theme with many variations. In spacing,
-strength and balance are in layout that is `heavy' enough---without
-big gaps of space--- and without big clusters of black. The
-distribution of space should reflect the character of the music.
-
-Spacing is an example of a subtlety of formatting music. The distances
-between notes should reflect the durations between notes, but adhering
-with mathematical precision to the duration will lead to a poor
-result. Shown here is an example of a motive, printed twice. It is
-printed using exact mathematical spacing, and with some
-corrections. Can you spot which fragment is which?
-
+In spacing, the distribution of space should reflect the durations
+between notes. However, adhering with mathematical precision to the
+duration will lead to a poor result. Shown here is an example of a
+motive, printed twice. It is printed using exact mathematical spacing,
+and with some corrections. Can you spot which fragment is which?
@cindex optical spacing
@lilypond[noindent]
= #0.6
c'4 e''4 e'4 b'4 |
\stemDown b'4 e''4 a'4 e''4| \stemBoth
+ \bar "||"
\property Staff.NoteSpacing \override #'stem-spacing-correction
= #0.0
\property Staff.StaffSpacing \override #'stem-spacing-correction
@cindex regular rhythms
@cindex regular spacing
-The fragment that was printed uses only quarter notes: notes that are
-played in a constant rhythm. The spacing should reflect
-that. Unfortunately, the eye deceives us a little: the eye not only
-notices the distance between note heads, but also between consecutive
-stems. As a result, the notes of a up-stem/down-stem combination
-should be put farther apart, and the notes of a down-up combination
-should be put closer together, all depending on the combined vertical
-positions of the notes. The first two measures are printed with this
-correction, the last two measures without. The notes in the last two
-measures form down-stem/up-stems clumps of notes.
-
-@node Computerized typography
-@section Computerized typography
-
-The example in the previous section is one illustration of how subtle
-music engraving can be is a subtle. Producing good engraving requires
-skill and knowledge.
-
-
-It was our challenge to see if we could put typographical knowledge
-into a computer program. Capturing that knowledge has two aspects:
-first, it has to be acquired. Then, it has to be encoded in
-data-structures and algorithms. As the previous example shows, there
-is a lot of subtlety involved in music engraving, and unfortunately,
-only a small fraction of these tiny details are documented.
+The fragment only uses quarter notes: notes that are played in a
+constant rhythm. The spacing should reflect that. Unfortunately, the
+eye deceives us a little: not only does it notice the distance between
+note heads, it also takes into account the distance between
+consecutive stems. As a result, the notes of an up-stem/down-stem
+combination should be put farther apart, and the notes of a down-up
+combination should be put closer together, all depending on the
+combined vertical positions of the notes. The first two measures are
+printed with this correction, the last two measures without. The notes
+in the last two measures form down-stem/up-stems clumps of notes.
+
+@node Typography and program architecture
+@section Typography and program architecture
+
+Producing good engraving requires skill and knowledge. It was our
+challenge to see if we could put such typographical knowledge into a
+computer program. Capturing that knowledge has two aspects: first, it
+has to be acquired. Then, it has to be encoded in data-structures and
+algorithms. As the previous examples show, there is a lot of subtlety
+involved in music engraving, and unfortunately, only a small fraction
+of these details are documented.
One reason for the time that it takes to become a master engraver, is
that all these details must be learned either from experience or from
the entire piece is formatted with thick stems:
@lilypond
\score { \notes {
+ \property Score.Stem \override #'thickness = #2.0
\once\property Voice. DynamicLineSpanner \override #'padding = #4.0
g'4-\f g4
}
there is no need to fear: normally, it is not necessary to define
style-sheets or rewrite formatting functions. In fact, LilyPond gets a
lot of formatting right automatically, so adjusting individual layout
-situations is not needed very often.
+situations is not needed very often at all.
@node Music representation
There are also more practical concerns. Our users have to key in the
music into the file directly, so the input format should have a
-friendly syntax. As programmers and scientists, we want a
-clean formal definition. After all, producing music notation is a
-difficult problem, and in the scientific world, problems can only be
-solved if they are well-specified. Moreover, formally defined formats
-are easier to write programs for.
-
-These ideas shaped our music representation: it is a compact format
-that can easily be typed by hand. It complex musical constructs from
-simple entities like notes and rests, in much the same way that one
-builds complex formulas from simple expressions such as numbers and
-mathematical operators.
+friendly syntax: a quarter note C is entered as @code{c4}, the code
+@code{r8.} signifies a dotted eighth rest.
+
+As programmers and scientists, we want a clean formal
+definition. After all, producing music notation is a difficult
+problem, and problems can only be solved if they are
+well-specified. Moreover, formally defined formats are easier to write
+programs for. We have chosen for a format that is based on music
+expressions: complex musical constructs are built from simple entities
+like notes and rests in much the same way that complex formulas are
+built from simple expressions such as numbers and mathematical
+operators. The language is described by a context-free
+grammar. Reading such languages robustly is a well studied problem,
+and we use a standard solution to do it.
+
+LilyPond is a batch program, so the syntax of the program is its
+user-interface. It is the part that they see most, so it is easy to
+think that music representation is a very important or interesting
+problem. In reality, less than 10% of the source code of the program
+handles reading and representing the input, and they form the easy
+bits of the program. Converting the music to notation, and calculating
+a pretty layout is much more difficult.
@node Example applications
@section Example applications
-As programmers and hedonists we enjoy beauty in code, and code that
-produces beautiful typeset music, but nevertheless this program can
-applied to do useful things. In this section, we show a few small
-examples of what is possible.
-
-The simplest application is printing notes.
+We have written LilyPond as an experiment of how to condense the art
+of music engraving into a computer program. Thanks to all that hard
+work, the program can now be used to perform useful tasks. The
+simplest application is printing notes.
@lilypond[relative=1]
\time 2/4 c4 c g'4 g a4 a g2
@end lilypond
-To these notes, chord names and lyrics may be added, yielding
-a lead sheet.
-
+By adding chord names and lyrics we obtain a lead sheet:
@lilypond[raggedright]
\score { <
\context ChordNames \chords { c2 c f2 c }
\context Lyrics \lyrics { twin4 kle twin kle lit tle star2 } > }
@end lilypond
-The following example combines some more exotic uses of notation
+Polyphonic notation and piano music can also be printed. The following
+example combines some more exotic constructs.
+
+@lilypondfile{screech-boink.ly}
-@lilypondfile{screech-boink.ly}
+The fragments shown above have all been written by hand, but that is not
+a requirement. Since the formatting engine is mostly automatic, it can
+serve as an output means for other programs that manipulate music. It
+can also be used to convert databases of musical fragments to images for
+use on websites on multimedia presentations.
+This manual also shows an application: the input format is plain text,
+and can therefore be easily embedded in other text-based formats, such
+as La@TeX{}, HTML or in the case of this manual, Texinfo. By means of a
+special program, the input fragments can be replaced by music images in
+the resulting PostScript or HTML output files. This makes it easy to
+mix music and text in documents.
@end ifhtml
@emph{@ref{Technical manual}}
@c
-discusses the general design of the program, and how to extend
+discusses the general design of the program, and how to extend its
functionality.
@item
@ifhtml
- The chapter
+The chapter
@end ifhtml
@emph{@ref{Invoking LilyPond}} explains how to run LilyPond and its helper
programs.
@end itemize
-Once you are experienced, you can simply use the manual as reference:
+Once you are an experienced user, you can use the manual as reference:
there is an extensive index@footnote{If you are looking for something,
and you cannot find it by using the index, that is considered a bug.
-In that case, please file a bug report}, but the document is also
+In that case, please file a bug report.}, but the document is also
available in
@ifnothtml
a big HTML page,
@cindex search in manual
@cindex using the manual
+@c TODO: advise to buy a book on notation?
If you are not familiar with music notation, or music terminology
(especially if you are a foreigner), then it is advisable to consult
available @uref{../lilypond-internals/lilypond-internals.html,here}
@end ifhtml
+The generated internal documentation is a heavily crosslinked HTML
+document, produced directly from the formatting definitions used. It
+documents the nit-gritty details of each and every LilyPond class,
+object and function.
+
Almost all formatting functionality that is used internally, is
available directly to the user. For example, all variables that
control thicknesses, distances, etc, can be changed in input
-files. There are a huge number of formatting options, and it would be
-impossible to describe them all in a hand-written manual. The
-generated internal documentation is a heavily crosslinked HTML
-document, produced directly from the formatting definitions used. It
-documents the nit-gritty details of each and every LilyPond class, object and
-function.
-
-Each section of the reference manual has a @b{See also}
-subsection, with links (in the HTML document, at least) to the
-generated documentation.
+files. There are a huge number of formatting options, and all of them
+are described in the generated documentation. Each section of the
+reference manual has a @b{See also} subsection, which refers to the
+the generated documentation. In the HTML document, these subsections
+have clickable links.
@item
Templates
(available @uref{../../../input/templates/out-www/collated-files.html,here})
@end ifhtml
-When you have gone through the tutorial, in theory you are able to
-start writing input files. In practice, writing files from scratch
-turns out to be intimidating. To give a headstart, we have collected
-a number of often-used formats in example files. These files can be
+After you have gone through the tutorial, in theory you should be able
+to write input files. In practice, writing files from scratch turns
+out to be intimidating. To give a headstart, we have collected a
+number of often-used formats in example files. These files can be
used as a start, by copying the template, and adding notes in the
appropriate places.
available @uref{../../../input/regression/out-www/collated-files.html,here}
@end ifhtml
-We strive to test each feature in one test file. This collection of is
-primarily to help us debug problems, but it can be instructive to see
-how we excercise the program. The format is like the input examples.
+We strive to test each feature in one test file. This collection is
+primarilyt there to help us debug problems, but it can be instructive
+to see how we excercise the program. The format is like the tips and
+tricks document.
@end itemize
@cindex index
Finally, this and all other manuals, are available online both as PDF
-files for print and HTML files for browsing. They are available from
-the web site, which can be found at @uref{http://www.lilypond.org/}.
+files and HTML from the web site, which can be found at
+@uref{http://www.lilypond.org/}.
@cindex website
@cindex URL
projects / lilypond.git / blobdiff