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)
31 beams, slurs, chords, super/subscripts (accents and text),
32 triplets, general n-plet (triplet,
33 quadruplets, etc.), lyrics
36 multiple scores within one input file. Each score is output to
40 clef changes, meter changes, cadenza-mode, declaring markings
41 in the music, repeat bars
46 =head1 DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
48 LilyPond was written with some considerations in mind:
53 Describing a well-defined language for defining music. We call
54 this language (rather arrogantly) The Musical Definition Language
55 (mudela for short). LilyPond reads a mudela sourcefile and outputs a
56 TeX file. This musical definition language should:
61 define the musical message of the writer as unambigiously as
65 be easily readable. (as compared to, say, MusixTeX input)
68 be writable in ASCII (with a simple texteditor).
72 At this time, the language isn't yet defined precisely. It is evolving as
73 LilyPond is getting more complex.
76 We want to provide an easy-to-use interface for typesetting music in
77 its broadest sense. This interface should be intuitive from a musical
78 point of view. By broadest sense we mean: it is designed for music
79 printed left to right in staffs, using notes to designate rythm and
83 LilyPond uses MusiXTeX fonts and TeX for its output. This is not a key
84 issue: in a future version, LilyPond might bypass TeX, but at the moment
85 TeX is very convenient for producing output.
88 Generate high-quality output. Ideally it should be of a professional
89 quality. We'd like to render Herbert Chlapiks words, "Fine music
90 setting is not possible without a knowledgeable printer," untrue.
93 LilyPond does not display notes directly, nor will it be rehacked to be
94 used interactively. LilyPond writes output to a file. It will not be
95 extended to play music, or to recognize music.
97 We're thinking about adding MIDI output, though
100 LilyPond is intended to run on Unix platforms, but it should
101 be portable to any platform which can run TeX and the GNU tools
104 LilyPond is free. Commercial windows packages for setting music are
105 abundant. Free musicprinting software is scarce.
108 LilyPond is written in GNU C++. It will not be downgraded/ported to fit
119 =item B<-I,--include>=F<FILE>
121 add F<FILE> to the search path for input files.
125 debugging. LilyPond will read the file F<.dstreamrc>, which tells for what functions to produce copious debugging output.
127 =item B<-w,--warranty>,
129 Show the warranty with which LilyPond comes. (It comes with B<NO WARRANTY>!)
131 =item B<-o,--output=>F<FILE>,
133 Set the default output file to F<FILE>.
137 Show a summary of usage
142 DISCLAIMER & COPYING POLICY
144 LilyPond is copyright 1996,97 by its authors. LilyPond is
145 distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public
146 License. LilyPond is provided without any warranty what so ever.
147 LilyPond may be freely distributed. For further information consult
148 the GNU General Public License, which is in the file F<COPYING>
157 Unix. Any decent Linux distribution is fine. LilyPond is known to run
158 on Linux, AIX, Digital Unix and Solaris
161 GNU C++ v2.7 or better, with libg++. Version 2.7.2 or better recommended.
167 flex (2.5.1 or better)
173 The "Flower" library, which should be available from the same
174 source you got this from.
177 perl. The Makefile uses perl for trivial operations, and you
178 could tinker with it to use sed or awk.
182 LilyPond does use a lot of resources. For operation you need the following:
190 The MusixTeX fonts. (I use version T.59)
198 tar zxf flower-1.11.9.tar.gz
199 mv flower-1.11.9 flower
200 cd flower; make; cd ..
201 tar zxf lilypond-1.2.13.tar.gz
206 You might want to edit Variables.make to tailor the compilation flags.
207 why G++ >= 2.7? LilyPond & flower lib uses:
218 operator <?, operator >?
224 class Rational (libg++)
236 Han-Wen Nienhuys <hanwen@stack.nl>, Main author
239 Jan Nieuwenhuizen <jan@digicash.com>, Lyrics, bits of
240 FlowerLib, general comments.
243 Mats Bengtsson <matsb@s3.kth.se>, bugfixes, testing, general comments.
247 Your name could be here! If you want to help, then take a look at the
248 SMALLISH PROJECTS section of in the file F<TODO>. Some do not involve
253 At this time, LilyPond is only suited for Quick & Dirty jobs (the
254 output quality of multistaff material still is too low). If you're not
255 discouraged; this is what I type in my xterm:
257 lilypond someinput.ly
261 This is what the output looks like over here:
263 hw:~/musix/spacer$ lilypond input/maartje
264 LilyPond 0.0.23/FlowerLib 1.0.20. Compile: Jan 20 1997, 00:51:06 (g++ 2.7.2)
265 Parsing ... [./init//symbol.ini[./init/dutch.ini][./init/script.ini][./init/table_sixteen.ini]][./input/maartje.ly]
266 Processing music ... warning: process_requests(): beamed note should have a stem (t = 5/8)
267 Preprocessing ... Calculating ... Postprocessing ...
268 output to lelie.out...
270 hw:~/musix/spacer$ tex test
271 This is TeX, Version 3.14159 (C version 6.1)
273 Hyphenation patterns for english, dutch, loaded.
274 (lilyponddefs.tex) (lelie.uit) [1] [2] )
275 Output written on test.dvi (2 pages, 8420 bytes).
276 Transcript written on test.log.
278 hw:~/musix/spacer$ xdvi test&
281 Check out F<kortjakje.ly>, it has some comments
286 If LilyPond bombs out, then please recompile using B<-g>, and send a
287 copy of the input which causes the error and a gdb stacktrace of the
288 crash. It also helps if you can print the values of the objects. So if
292 #0 Interval::operator+= (this=0x11fffec60..)
293 at ../flower/interval.hh:50
294 #1 0x12005195c in Item::width (this=0x14008a680) at src/item.cc:39
295 #2 0x12008fdbc in itemlist_width (its=0x11fffed58 ..
299 Than it would help if you send a dump of the Interval and the Item
300 (use: C<print *this> or use LilyPond C<print()> methods).
302 This is a beta version of LilyPond. Please send your helpful comments
303 and patches to me (see AUTHORS section)
305 LilyPond is updated very frequently, the latest version is always available at:
306 ftp://pcnov095.win.tue.nl/pub/lilypond.
314 The initialisation file with symbol tables etc. It
315 includes files from the directory F<init/>.
321 There are some documentation files in the subdirectory F<Documentation/>,
322 among others: lilygut, lilyinput, error, faq,
326 LilyPond has no connection with the music package RoseGarden, other
327 than the names being similar.
332 (for a detailed changelog, see F<NEWS>)
334 LilyPond's roots lie in MPP, a preprocessor to the rather arcane
335 MusiXTeX macro package for TeX. A friend of mine, Jan Nieuwenhuizen
336 wrote the first 44 versions (0.01 to 0.44), then his program caught my
337 attention, and I was slowly sucked in to the interesting problem of
338 easily producing beautifully printed music. I contributed some
339 code. We soon realised that MPP's design was too fundamentally broken
340 to be repaired. It was decided to rewrite MPP. We debated a lot about
341 the requirements to an inputformat (fall 1995). I sat down and started
342 with a parser-first, bottom-up rewrite called mpp95 (which totally
345 After long and hard thinking, I came up with an algorithm for the
346 horizontal spacing of multiple staffs (april 1996) I coded it (and did
347 not test it). After starting with this fundamental piece, I slowly
348 added the stages which come before spacing, and after a few months, I
349 had a first working version, (october 1996). I announced Patchlevel 0.0.7
350 (or 8) to the mutex list after asking some technical details on
351 spacing; it was downloaded approximately 4 times. Then I got the hang
352 of it, and in the subsequent two months, I coded until it had
353 doubled in size (pl 23).