3 % this document should be run through the mudela-book script after lilypond
4 % has been installed. The rules have been precooked into the
5 % Documentation/Rules.make file; do
7 % make out/introduction.dvi
11 % mudela-book --outdir=out/ --outname=introduction.mudtex introduction.doc
12 % latex '\nonstopmode \input out/introduction.mudtex'
14 % Hoi Tim, hier staan wat 'enge' commando's (die dingen met een '\'
15 % zoals \documentclass en \def\mudela...).
16 % Daar moet je je niets van aantrekken, ga gewoon naar Introduction
19 \documentclass{report}
22 \author{Jan Nieuwenhuizen \& Han-Wen Nienhuys}
24 \def\file#1{\verb+#1+}
26 % ugh: trick to get examples not generate par
28 \def\mudelapaperlinewidth{-28.452756}%
29 \def\mudelapaperindent{28.452756}%
30 \def\mudelapaperrulethickness{0.400000}%
31 \def\mudelapaperbarsize{16.000000}%
32 \def\mudelapaperinterline{4.000000}%
33 \def\mudelapapernotewidth{5.930000}%
34 \def\mudelapaperwholewidth{8.640000}%
35 \def\mudelapaperunitspace{22.000000}%
36 \def\mudelapaperbasicspace{4.000000}%
37 \def\mudelapapergeometric{0.000000}%
38 \def\mudelapaperarithmetic_basicspace{2.000000}%
39 \def\mudelapaperarithmetic_multiplier{4.800000}%
40 \def\mudelapaperinterbeam{3.140000}%
41 \def\mudelapapergourlay_energybound{100000.000000}%
42 \def\mudelapapergourlay_maxmeasures{14.000000}%
44 % \def\exampleheight{2\mudelapaperbarsize pt}
45 \def\exampleheight{2cm}
47 % ful of pars, needs the above
51 \def\musixsixteendefs{}
54 \def\turnOnPostScript{}
62 %\def\interexample{\hskip15mm$\Longrightarrow$\hskip15mm}
63 %\def\interexample{\hbox to10mm{\hfill\hbox to0pt{\hss\vbox to\exampleheight{\vss$\Longrightarrow$\vss}\hss}\hfill}}
66 \def\postexample{\par\medskip}
68 \def\file#1{{\texttt{#1}}}
69 \setcounter{secnumdepth}{-1}
73 \emph{\Large ***Under construction: april 98***}
75 \section{Introduction}
77 This chapter is a gentle introduction to using LilyPond to typeset
80 LilyPond is a so called ``batch'' program. This means, that you use a
81 text editor (such as \texttt{emacs} or \texttt{vi}) to create an input
82 file. When you are done editing your input file, you save it, and you
83 run LilyPond on the file. If Lily finds any errors in your input file
84 then she\footnote{ We're sure that if computer programs could have
85 gender, LilyPond would be a female computer program. So we will refer
86 to the program as a she. This gender-bending is not to tease you, dear
87 reader. We do it in real life as well. In the past two years LilyPond
88 has become sort of a baby daughter to us, keeping us awake at night,
89 but also providing us lots of joy. We hope you do not mind our little
90 aberration from computer-manual tradition.
92 % The name LilyPond is actually sort of a girl's name. Can you guess which
95 } will complain. If everything is well, than she'll generate a file, that
96 you can process further to view or print.
98 Using LilyPond to print or view some music is a procedure with four
99 steps. To get you started we'll run down the full procedure for you
104 Fire up your favourite editor (if you know none, try \texttt{joe silly.ly}),
105 and key in the following text:
109 \type Staff = aStaff \melodic { g'2 e'4 }
110 \type Lyrics = yell \lyric { Air2 ball!4 }
116 Save your file as \file{silly.ly}.
118 %The input files for LilyPond have the default extension \file{.ly}.
121 Run LilyPond on your newly created file: enter \verb+lilypond silly+.
122 LilyPond will then print all kinds of mumbo jumbo that can safely be
123 ignored. You might see something like this:
125 GNU LilyPond 0.1.55/FlowerLib 1.1.39
126 Parsing ... [/home/hanwen/musix/spacer/init/lily-init.ly[/home/hanwen/
128 ... stuff left out here ...
130 Documentation/silly.ly]
131 Interpreting music ...[1] (time: 0.04 seconds)
132 Preprocessing elements...
133 Calculating column positions ... [2]
134 Approximated: 1 lines, (with an average of 4.0 columns)
136 warning: Can not solve this casting problem exactly; revert to Word_wrap
137 [2]Time: 0.00 seconds
139 Postprocessing elements...
140 TeX output to silly.tex ...
142 All has gone well; there were some warning but no errors. The output
143 is a TeX file, and it is called \file{silly.tex}. \file{TeX} is
144 usually spelled as \TeX. It is batch program for typesetting text,
145 developed by the great programmer and scientist Donald Knuth to
146 typeset his famous The Art of Computer Programming bookseries. As you
147 can see \TeX\ can be adapted to do a lot more. In fact, the document
148 that you are reading now was also done with \TeX.
150 To do something useful with the output you have to run \TeX\ on it
151 first. Run the command \verb+tex silly+. The output should resemble this:
153 This is TeX, Version 3.14159 (C version 6.1)
155 Babel <v3.6h> and hyphenation patterns for american, dutch, loaded.
156 (/home/hanwen/lib/texmf/tex/lilypond/lilyponddefs.tex
157 (/home/hanwen/lib/texmf/tex/lilypond/dyndefs.tex)
158 (/home/hanwen/lib/texmf/tex/lilypond/fetdefs.tex
159 (/home/hanwen/lib/texmf/tex/lilypond/feta20.tex)
160 (/home/hanwen/lib/texmf/tex/lilypond/lily-ps-defs.tex))) [1] )
161 Output written on silly.dvi (1 page, 3084 bytes).
162 Transcript written on silly.log.
164 The human translation is ``everything went OK, the result is one
165 page long, and I put it in \file{silly.dvi}.''
167 \item The \file{silly.dvi} file is a description of how a piece of
168 text looks when it is printed. You can view it, or print it. If you
169 are using a Unix system equipped with X-Windows, then you can issue
170 the command \file{xdvi silly} to view the result. If this is not the
171 case, consult your local \TeX\ guru on printing and viewing DVI files.
172 What is in your window should look like this:
176 \type Staff = aStaff \melodic { g'2 e'4 }
177 \type Lyrics = yell \lyric { Air2 ball!4 }
183 The remainder of this document is not about \TeX, and mostly not even
184 about LilyPond. What you entered into your text editor in step~1. and
185 fed to LilyPond is a special kind of file composed of notenames,
186 special words and punctation. The remainder of this document explains
187 how to combine these elements to express a piece of music in the
188 language that LilyPond understands. In other words, we try to explain
189 how to use LilyPond, and not how LilyPond works. For want of a better
190 name we call the language Mudela (short for Music Description
193 This document does not cover all of Mudela. Due to technical details,
194 the precise working of Mudela is coupled to the innards of LilyPond.
195 If you really want to know all the details, your best bet would be to
196 get the sources to LilyPond and read the parser and scanner source.
197 They are in \file{lilypond-x.y.z/lily/parser.y},
198 \file{lilypond-x.y.z/lily/lexer.l}\footnote{Of course, it would be even
199 better if you would improve LilyPond and send the resulting diffs to
200 us. But that would a really different ballpark (And we haven't
201 started with the programming guide yet.)}
203 In the following sections the basic elements of Mudela are presented.
204 We don't want to bore you too much with details, so we will leave-out
205 some red tape that's needed for a valid piece of Mudela: to be
206 precise, we will write \verb+X Y Z+, when we really mean
213 Usually, we will also print the resulting fragment of music on the
214 right just as it was produced by LilyPond.
216 For the remainder we will assume that you can carry out steps 1 to 4
217 from the above instruction. We will also assume that you know how
218 music notation works. If you are not familiar with the English terms
219 for music notation, then you should consult XXXX [FIXME], it contains
220 a glossary of musical terms.
222 \section{Music copying versus music definition}
224 If you have done music copying before, then using LilyPond may seem
225 awkward to you in the beginning. The purpose of LilyPond is informally
226 explained by the term ``music typesetter.''
228 This may give the impression that the program is like a drawing tool
229 that lets you control precisely how the music is formatted. This is
230 not the case: not only does the program print musical symbols,
231 LilyPond also tries to make esthetic decisions---to be precise, we
232 programmed her to do what we find pretty. You do not have complete
233 control over what is happening. On the other hand, good engraving is
234 a very complex trade, so it is a Good Thing that you do not have to
235 worry about what is happening.
237 Secondly, LilyPond operates on musical definitions. This really is
238 something different from graphical definitions. If you copy music by
239 hand from a printed score, you don't have to know what the score
240 means; you just copy the symbols. With LilyPond such a thing is not
241 possible: we expect you to enter the meaning of the score, not the
242 score itself. If put more concretely: you do not enter ``black
243 notehead without flag, fourth staff line'', but ``a quarter note,
244 pitch d$^2$''. LilyPond will figure out from the musical info what
245 kind of graphic presentation is needed.
247 This has some drawbacks: most notably, it is difficult to enter sheet
248 music that you cannot read. On the other hand, any piece of music
249 once entered can be played and transposed automatically.
252 \section{When you know the notes to print\ldots}
254 The basic building block of music is the note. You can have LilyPond
255 print a note by specifying its pitch and the duration. The pitch of
256 the central C, also known as c$^1$, is written as \verb+c'+. A quarter
257 note duration is written as \verb+4+. So, to print quarter note with
258 central C pitch, you enter the following
259 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
262 The pitch \verb+c'+ actually consists of two parts: one for the note
263 name, and one part for the octave. The number of apostrophes
264 specifies the octave to use, and the letter which note name to use.
265 The note names simply are the letters \verb+a+ to \verb+g+.
268 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim]
269 c'4 d'4 e'4 c'4 c''4 d''4 e''4 f''4 g''4 a''4 b''4 c'''4
272 The duration of a note is specified as a number: a whole note is
273 denoted by 1, the half note by 2, the quarter by 4, and so on. Here
274 are some random notes to show how it works
275 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim]
276 'c8 c8 c'16 c''32 d''64 b'64 c'''2 c1 c'4 d'4 e'4 f'4 g'4 a'4
279 This gives us already enough material to make simple songs:
280 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim]
283 g''8 a''8 g''8 f''8 e''4 c''4
287 There is only one part about pitches that we haven't told you:
288 chromatically altered pitches. The names ``a'' to ``g'' for typing
289 pitches are convenient: they are short, pronounceable and they
290 resemble the normal vocabulary for pitches.
292 Enter flats and sharps. In English there is no standard terse word
293 for C sharp or C flat. For this reason, we implemented a different,
294 non-english convention for entering altered pitches, see
295 table~\ref{notename-tab}: one makes a note sharp by adding the suffix
296 ``--is'' to the name, one makes the a note flat by adding the suffix
297 ``--es.'' For a double sharp you simply add another ``--is'' suffix,
303 \caption{Defaults note names}\label{notename-tab}
307 c double flat &ceses\\
311 c double sharp &cisis\\
317 Variations on this convention are used in a number of germanic
318 languages, notably Dutch, German, Swedish, and Norwegian. To be
319 precise, LilyPond actually defaults to dutch notenames, with aes,
320 aeses, ees and eeses added for consistency.
322 If you are not comfortable with these names, you can make your own
323 names. Included with the example initialisation files are note names
324 for different languages, among others English (C sharp is abbreviated
325 to cs), Italian, Swedish, Norwegian
327 \section{Hairy rhythms}
329 \section{Handy input}
334 Durations are entered as their reciproce values
335 % a1 a2 a4 a a8 a a16 a a32 a a64 a a a a
336 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
337 a1 a2 a4 a a8 a a16 a32 a64
339 note that you only have to specify
340 the duration when it changes:
341 Lily assumes a note has the same duration as the previous one.
343 Now we can already write a little tune
344 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
345 c d e c | c d e c | e f g2
347 As you'll probably have guessed,
348 the vertical bar (pipe) \verb+|+ may be used to mark
351 In the scale shown above
352 we left-out the last c note of the next octave.
353 Postfixing the pitch with a quote \verb+'+
354 produces a note by one octave higher
355 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
359 Prefixing the pitch with a quote \verb+'+
360 produces a note by one octave lower
361 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
365 \section{Slurs and Ties}
367 A tie connects two adjacent noteheads
369 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
373 Whereas a slur rather connects `chords',
374 and tries to avoid crossing stems
376 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
380 And of course, such a (legato) slur can span several notes
381 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
385 \section{Beams and Plets}
388 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
392 Here's a beamed triplet
393 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
397 a triplet without a beam
398 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
403 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
408 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
412 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
418 Lily has predefined sets of notenames
419 for various languages%
420 \footnote{These are Dutch, English, German, Italian and Swedish.
421 Simply include the language specific init file \file{<language.ly>}.}.
422 The default set are the ones we like best are the Dutch notenames.
424 A sharp is formed by adding \verb+is+
425 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
426 cis dis eis fis gis ais bis
429 and a flat is formed by adding \verb+es+%
430 %\footnote{Exceptions: \verb+es+ and \verb+as+.}
431 \footnote{Exceptions: {\tt es} and {\tt as}.}
432 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
433 ces des es fes ges as bes
436 With the obvious names for double sharps
437 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
438 cisis disis eisis fisis gisis aisis bisis
442 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
443 ceses deses eses feses geses ases beses
447 There are two special `notenames', the rest
448 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
453 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
454 a2 s-"diminuendo" | a
460 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
465 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
466 \clef "violin"; f' e' \clef "alto"; d' c'
469 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
473 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
475 'g 'a 'b cis d e fis g'
477 Note how Mudela allows you to
478 convey a musical message
479 rather than forces you to produce a list of typesetting commands.
480 If the music a \verb+cis+, you type a \verb+cis+.
481 Depending on the key and context of the note
482 Lily will determine what accidentals to typeset.
484 A reminder accidental can be forced by
485 using an exclamation mark \verb+!+
486 on a pitch a reminder accidental
487 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
488 cis d e cis | c! d e c |
491 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
493 \bar "|:"; c c \bar ":|:"; c c \bar ":|"; c c \bar "|.";
496 \section{Chords and Voices}
498 Here's a simple chord
499 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
504 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
513 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim,center]
515 { \voiceone c g c g }
516 { \voicetwo 'c2 'g2 }
521 \section{A complete example}
524 A Mudela file needs some red tape
526 \begin{mudela}[verbatim,center]
539 \begin{mudela}[verbatim,center]
562 Check-out this handy little script
563 that not only may save you quite some keystrokes,
564 but produces titles and takes care of
565 margins and (hopefully) papersizes.
566 See \file{ly2dvi (1)}.
568 \chapter{Input format reference}
572 This document describes the the GNU LilyPond input format, which is an
573 effective language for defining music. We call this language (rather
574 arrogantly) The Musical Definition Language or Mudela, for
575 short.\footnote{If anybody comes up with a better name, we'd gladly
576 take this. Gourlay already uses Musical Description Language,
577 G-Sharp Score Definition Language. ISO standard 10743 defines a
578 Standard Music Description Language. We're not being original here}
580 The first aim of Mudela is to define a piece of music, being complete
581 from both from a musical typesetting, as from a musical performing
584 The Musical Definition Language (Mudela), has a logical structure,
585 making use of identifiers, that allows for flexible input, and
586 definition reuse. See \file{MANIFESTO} for reasons and design considerations.
588 The below included for explanatory purposes only (i.e., for a complete
589 and up-to-date definition, see \file{lily/parser.y} and
590 \file{lily/lexer.l}):
592 As a related note, you should take a look at the examples and the init
593 files, as this document does not cover every aspect of mudela yet, and
594 may be out of date.\footnote{Ok, I am being pessimistic here. This
595 just is a disclaimer. Docs usually are written after the program
596 itself.} This document intends to give an idea of how it works, it
597 is not a guide on how to use it.
600 \section{Basic elements}
604 The de-facto extension of Mudela is \file{.ly}. Files may be included by
605 entering \verb+\include+ at the start of a line:
612 \subsection{Comments}
614 Line comments are introduced by a
616 Block comments are delimited
623 \subsection{Versions}
625 Occasionally, small changes in syntax across different versions of
626 Mudela might give syntax errors. To warn you about possible
627 incompatibilities, you can specify the Mudela version for which the
628 inputfile was written,
633 A perl-script which tries to convert to newer versions
634 (\file{convert-mudela}) is included in the LilyPond distribution.
638 Keywords are preceded by a backslash: \verb+\+. They contain
639 alphabetic characters only.
641 Identifiers in their normal form consist start with a backslash, a
642 alpha character, followed by alpha-numerics. Identifiers can contain
643 any characters (except whitespace,
644 and \verb+%+), if you use this construct:
647 \$i'm_a_weird!!!identifier
650 (which is the identifier with the name
651 \verb+i'm_a_weird!!!identifier+). \verb+$+ Takes any sequence of
652 characters which are not whitespace, \verb+$+ and \verb+%+.
653 \verb+$i'm_a_weird!!!string+
654 \def\foobar{$} % silly fontlock mode
656 \subsection{Nesting characters}
658 Mudela uses the brace (\verb+{+ and \verb+}+) for most hierarchical
659 structures. For chords the \verb+<+ and the \verb+>+ are used as
662 \subsection{Constants}
664 Please note that -.5 is not a Real.
673 \subsection{Identifiers}
675 When assigning identifiers you use
681 If you reuse identifiers, then the previous contents will be thrown
682 away after the right hand is evaluated, eg
684 bla = \melodic { \bla }
688 When using identifiers they have to be escaped:
691 oboe = \melodic { ... }
692 \score{ \melodic { \oboe }}
695 The left-hand part of the assignment is really a string, so
697 "Foo bar 4 2 " = \melodic { .. }
700 is also a valid assignment (but you would have trouble referencing to it)
703 \subsection{Hierarchical structures}
705 The general structure consists of declarations:
714 \TYPE{ <type specific data> }
717 (Currently, \verb+\score+ is the only type that can be instantiated
718 at top level. Currently declarations can only be done at top level)
720 Most instantiations that use an IDENTIFIER are specified as follows:
723 \TYPE{ IDENTIFIER [...] }
726 Some exceptions on this rule have been made to prevent inputting
727 Mudela becoming tedious
732 To simplify different aspects of music definition (entering the notes
733 and manipulating them) Mudela has a number of different input "modes":
740 At the start of parsing, Mudela assumes normal mode.
741 In Normal mode, a word is looked up in the following order:
743 \item{\verb+word+} string
744 \item{\verb|"string"|} string
745 \item{\verb|\word|} keyword, identifier
747 In normal mode, a word is assumed to start with an alphabetic
748 character, followed by alpha-numeric characters.
750 \item[Note mode] Note mode is introduced by the keyword
751 \verb+\melodic+. In Note mode, a word is looked up in the following
754 \item{\verb+word+} notename, string
755 \item{\verb|"string"|} string
756 \item{\verb|\word|} keyword, identifier
759 In Note mode a word is considered to have alphabetic characters only,
760 so the underscore (\_) is illegal. If you accidently mistype a
761 notename, the parser will assume that you are entering a string (and
762 it will most likely complain that you should be in \verb|\lyrics| mode to
766 \item[Lyric mode] Lyrics mode (and thus Simple mudela) is introduced
767 by the keyword \verb+\lyrics+. Because of the various control
768 characters that can appear in lyrics, eg, ``foreign language''
769 accents, the inputting a string containing these has been made very
772 In Lyrics mode, a word is looked up in the following order:
774 \item{\verb+word+} string (thus a lyric)
775 \item{\verb|"string"|} string
776 \item{\verb|\word|} keyword, identifier
779 In Lyric mode every sequence of non-digit and non-white characters
780 starting with an alphabetic character or the \_ is considered a word.
783 a&@&@&TSI|{[ % a word
784 1THtrhortho % not a "word"
785 Leise Fl\"u\ss{}teren meine Sapfe % 4 words
786 _ _ _ _ % 4 words: 4 spaces
790 These modes are of a lexical nature. Normal and Note mode largely
791 resemble each other, save the possibility of entering Reals,
792 meaning of \verb+_+ and the resolution of words
796 You enter a note by giving the name and the reciprocal of the duration:
798 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim]
802 is a A-1 pitched crotchet. The ' signifies an octave change. A-1 is 440
803 Hz concert-pitch. \verb+c'+ is also known as the central c. More examples:
805 \begin{mudela}[fragment,verbatim]
808 A % 110, uppercase octavates down
814 The last one is an A flat, (just below 110 Hz concert-pitch). The \verb+*2/3+
815 signifies that this note is part of a triplet (3 in stead of 2). The
816 duration is one and a half quarter note (\verb+4.+) times 2/3.
818 Notenames are just a special kind of identifiers, and can be declared
819 for any language appropriate (see \file{init/dutch.ly}). The default language
820 for notenames is defined to be Dutch. In Dutch, the notenames are
821 a,b,c,d,e,f and g. Sharps are formed by adding the extension "is",
822 flats by adding ``es''
826 cisis disis eisis fisis gisis aisis bisis
828 cis dis eis fis gis ais bis
832 ces des es fes ges as bes
834 ceses deses eses feses geses ases beses
837 Rests are named r or s
840 s % a "space" rest, nothing is printed.
843 These notenames along with duration are enough material to construct
846 \begin{mudela}[verbatim,fragment]
852 Music is able to express more. generally speaking, the other
853 'features' are either connected between notes (slurs, beams: spanning
854 requests) or attached to notes (eg. accents). The former are
855 implemented as START and STOP stop features and then attached to the note.
858 \item{[ and ]} start and stop a beam
859 \item{( and )} start and stop a slur
863 \begin{mudela}[verbatim,fragment]
866 e8(] [)g8 <c'8] e'8> % NO nesting!
867 [2/3 c8 c8 c8]1/1 % a triplet
870 Please note that these two characters do \emph{not} necessarrily nest,
871 they should be attached to the note. For this reason, the construct
872 \verb+[ <c4 c4>]+ will generate a parse error.
874 \subsection{Slurs and Ties}
876 Ties connect the noteheads of adjacent notes. They are entered as follows:
878 \begin{mudela}[verbatim,fragment]
882 Slurs connect whole chords, and try to avoid crossing stems. They are
885 \begin{mudela}[verbatim,fragment]
891 Symbols which can be put at either side (above or below) of a staff
892 are entered as follows:
893 \begin{mudela}[verbatim,fragment]
894 a-^ % marcato, direction: default
895 %a^- % portato, direction: above note
896 a_. % staccato, direction: below note
897 a^\fermata % predefined identifier
898 c_"marcato" % add a text
903 If you want to define your own scripts refer to \file{init/script.ly} for
907 Dynamics can be put after the notename:
909 a4 \dynamic { 0 } % 0 = fff, 7 = ppp
912 Mudela defines the following dynamic identifiers:
915 ppp pp p mp mf f ff fff sfz fz fp
917 and the following abbreviations:
920 \> % start decrescendo
921 \! % end crescendo/decrescendo
924 \subsection{Defaults}
926 If omit the duration of a note, a default value is substituted. For
927 this default value mudela uses the last duration explicitly entered.
929 Thus the following inputs are equivalent
931 c4 c4 c16 c16 c16 s16 c4 c16
932 c4 c c16 c c c c4 c16
935 If you are typing music which does not lie in the "small" and "large"
936 octave, you can prevent having to type \verb+'+ all the time by using the
937 \verb+\octave+ command: These two lines have the same pitch.
939 c'' d'' e'' c d e c d e
940 \octave c''; c d e ''c ''d ''e \octave c; c d e
943 By default the setting of \verb+\octave+ is 0.
947 Lyrics in Mudela resemble Simple mudela a lot, with notes substituted
950 All syllables are entered separately, separated by whitespace
952 Twin-4 kle4 twin-4 kle4 ...
955 Two syllables or words that compose a single
956 duration entry are bound together using an underscore
961 \section{Composition: forming bigger structures}
963 The previous examples tacitly assumed that a sequence of notes is
964 printed in a left to right manner. This is not entirely correct, you
965 will get the bigger picture in this section.
967 In mathematics you can form expressions by combining expressions,
968 which are ultimately some kind of atom or terminal symbol. The same
969 goes for mudela: there are some basic building blocks, and by
970 combining those you create complex music.
972 You can combine music in three ways:
974 \item If you enclose a sequence of music-elements in braces ( \verb+{+
975 and \verb+}+ ), then you form another kind of music called (Voice) with those pieces.
976 The duration of the Voice is the sum of the durations of its elements
978 { c c g g a a g2 } % twinkle twinkle
979 { { c c g g} { a a g2 } }
981 \item You can stack music by enclosing a sequence of music elements
982 with \verb+<+ and \verb+>+. This is called a Chord. The duration of a Chord is
983 the union of the durations of its elements Example:
985 <a4 {cis8 cis8} e'4> % a-major chord
988 You can form music by transposing music:
991 d % from c to the d that's one octave down
992 { e4 f4 } % the horizontal music
996 Of course you can also combine these three mechanisms.
998 { c <c e> <c e g> <c e g \transpose d' dis > } % 4 increasing chords
1001 The basic building block in Mudela is called Request. Examples of
1002 Requests are: Timing (such as Meter), Rhythmic, Melodic, Note (which is a combination of
1003 Rhythmic and Melodic), Musicscript (put an accent over a note or
1004 rest), etc. For the actual up to date listing, you should consult the
1005 LilyPond source code: the Request types form a big class hierarchy.
1007 Normally you don't enter Requests directly, since that would be
1008 tedious. Mudela has standard abbreviations for the most common
1009 combination of Requests. If you enter \verb+c4+, this is an
1014 notename: 0 acc: 0 oct: -1
1023 The \verb+Request_chord+ is a special kind of chord which only allows
1024 Requests as its elements. The examples of the previous section were
1025 processed with \verb+{+ and \verb+}+ enclosing the input.
1027 \subsection{Durations}
1029 A duration always starts with the duration type (1,2,4 etc), and then
1030 any optional multipliers/dots. Old fashioned durations can be entered
1039 \subsection{Meters/groupings}
1041 A meter has this form:
1046 Rhythmic grouping is a concept closely associated with this. For
1047 example, in a 5/8 meter, the counts are grouped 2+3. In mudela this is
1052 You can start the piece with a partial measure, the command takes the
1053 same syntax as grouping:
1058 Make the piece start with a upstep [english translation?]
1059 lasting 1 3/4 quarter notes.
1061 These commands are also "voice elements", and constitute ``Music''
1062 (consisting of stuff with duration 0).
1065 \subsection{Voicegroups}
1070 If more than one "voice" is in a staff, then you have the option of
1071 putting the different voices into so called voicegroups: members of
1072 the same voicegroup share certain characteristics, among others:
1079 For the actual list, see the init file \file{init/register.ly}
1081 Putting different musical lines in to the same voicegroup effectively
1082 makes LilyPond try to form chords of all those lines. Putting
1083 different musical lines in to different voicegroups effectively makes
1084 LilyPond try to set those lines as independently as possible.
1086 [adsolete. Has to be fixed in lily]
1088 You can set the voicegroup of a voice with the command \verb+\group+, e.g.,
1099 oboeII = \melodic { \group "oboes";
1107 melodicregs \melodic{ oboeI }
1112 In this example, the two oboe voices share one staff and are initially
1113 in the voicegroup called "oboes". They will share beams, dynamics etc.
1114 After two quarter notes, oboeI "pushes" its group: a new voicegroup is
1115 created, called "oboes+solo". The \verb+\group "-"+ command makes the
1116 voice enter "oboes" again.
1118 Please do note that [] are voicegroup wide; the previous input is
1119 valid: the beam, started in oboeI, voicegroup "oboes" is also ended in
1120 voicegroup "oboes", albeit not in oboeI but oboeII
1122 This concept may seem contorted, but it allows you to set the separate
1123 oboe parts without changing the \verb+oboeI+ and \verb+oboeII+ (assuming that
1124 you edit the [] in the example.)
1128 < { .... } {......} >
1130 makes a chord (all horizontal parts are in the same voicegroup). The construct
1132 \multi 2 < { ....} { .... } >
1134 creates horizontal parts which behave independently. You will have to
1135 set voicegroup features by hand (\verb+\stem+ and \verb+\hshift+. See examples)
1139 \multi 3 < { ....} { .... } >
1141 creates a chord with each part in a different staff
1144 \subsection{Examples}
1146 Examples are included with the GNU LilyPond distribution. For the sake of
1147 maintenance no long examples are included in this document.
1152 This language has a number of roots. First and foremost, GNU
1153 LilyPond's predecessor mpp was the inspiration of the Note-mode input.
1154 Secondly, the hierarchical structure looks a lot like Rayce's (Rayce
1155 is a raytracer that I've written as a hobby project. ), which in turn
1156 owes a lot to POVRay.
1158 Now, we know, musictypesetting and raytracing do not necessarily
1159 require the same input format, and we know that a lot more ways exist
1160 to convert music to ASCII, but we did give this language some
1161 thoughts. As always suggestions are appreciated.