On Mon, 09 Dec 2002 14:55:40 +0000 Ralph Little <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Can anybody explain why, despite having a "fs" specified by the > current key(for G Major), "fs" or "fis" needs to be specified, rather > than just assuming that the key fills in the gaps?
Because assuming that "f" really means "fis" in G major only works for classical tonal music. In late Romantic music and 20th century music, having an f-natural in a piece in G major isn't uncommon. We'd have to write something like "fnat" to mean f-natural. Look at it this way -- pick up an instrument (or sit in front of an instrument, like a piano) and play a D-major scale. What's the third note you played? It was an F-sharp. Even if you look at a score that shows an F-no-accidental and has two sharps in the key signature, the actual note you played was an F-sharp. So you tell Lilypond "I want an F-sharp". In a more unixy answer, lilypond is based on LaTeX, which makes a strong (and very useful!) distinction between data and presentation. You write your data in a text file, and the LaTeX takes care of all the formatting. In a similar way, for Lilypond you write the music down in a text file, and then Lilypond takes care of the formatting and presentation. Given the confusion over this, we should add a note in the tutorial. To devel folks: I'll be getting back into lilypond devel on thursday, so I'll be happy to add this if nobody does it before me. Cheers, - Graham _______________________________________________ Lilypond-user mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user
