> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Lukas-Fabian Moser <l...@gmx.de>
> To: Simon Albrecht <simon.albre...@mail.de>, lilypond-user <
> lilypond-user@gnu.org>
> Cc:
> Bcc:
> Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2019 00:40:31 +0200
> Subject: Re: Transposing instrument best practice
> Hi,
>
> > Given the highly confusing nature of the subject, wouldn’t it be
> > better if the NR took a clear stance toward one of the ways as ‘best
> > practice’?
> >
> > Which way would that be? What experiences did you make?
>
> (I still dispute the description of the subject as highly confusing, but
> this may be an instance of "déformation professionnelle" since I am
> often in the position of having to convince students that there is no
> need to fear transposing instruments ;-).)
>
> For what it's worth, I can describe my practice - for me it may well be
> "best" practice:
>
> GENERAL RULE: I like to have the contents of a music variable in concert
> pitch at all times. This means, I want to make sure that if I just combine
>
> <<
> \new Staff \clarinetI
> \new Staff \clarinetII
> \new Staff \violinI
> >>
>
> in conjunction with \midi, everything should fit.
>
> This implipes:
>
> ENTERING: Whether I actually enter the \clarinetI notes in written or in
> sounding pitch depends on the source. In most cases, the source will be
> transposing (not in sounding pitch), and since I'm too lazy to transpose
> on-the-fly, I enter written pitch and wrap everything in a \transpose
> command:
>
> clarinetI = \transpose c' a {
> % music copied directly from a part written for Clarinet in a.
> } % the variable now contains the music in concert pitch
>
> (Actually, this means that while entering the Clarinet music, I "hear"
> the piece in the wrong key since, having perfect pitch, I tend to hear
> the note of the name I'm typing. That's not ideal, but less of an
> inconvenience than transposing everything while typing.)
>
> Of course, one can also omit the \transpose command and instead perform
> an actual transposition of the written note names using the neat tools
> that Frescobaldi offers. This way one actually "sees" concert pitch in
> the source code.
>
> SCORE/PART DESIGN: Since all my music variables are in sounding pitch, I
> have to re-transpose them when creating the actual score and parts (I
> almost never create concert pitch scores):
>
> \new Staff \with { instrumentName = \markup{ Clarinetto in \italic la }
> } { \transposition a \transpose a c' \clarinetI }
>
> Here, the \transposition command makes sure that a midi file that might
> be generated from the score uses the right transposition.
>
>
> Of course, this way of handling things leads to a redundant bunch of
> transpositions and re-transpositions (if I enter a written clarinet part
> in written pitch, \transpose it to make sure the music variable contains
> sounding pitches, and \transpose it back in order to recreate the
> clarinet part for the player). But I like the conceptual idea of my
> general rule that a music variable should _always_ contain music in
> actual concert pitch.
>
>
> A drawback of this method seems to be that it's quite hard to implement
> mid-piece changes of transposition. I somehow never seem to need this;
> but if I ever had the need to typeset an old-style French Horn part that
> changes transposition every few bars, I would probably abandon my
> "general rule", enter written pitch and define a music function
> \changeTransposition that i) issues the proper \transposition command
> and ii) generates a text markup like "in fa".
>
> Best
> Lukas
I wanted to second just about everything that Lukas said.
I also enter notes transposed (when convenient),
but also store the material in concert pitch in variables.
When entering notes transposed,
I strongly suggest adopting a naming convention
to clarify the pitch of the note entry.
I have yet to run across a situation
that could not be solved by this approach
just using \transpose
\version "2.19.81"
% So, music entry may look like:
tenorSaxophoneSongInBb = \relative c'' {
a8 8 r4 r2 | a8 8 r4 a8 8 r4 | a4. d8 r2 | R1 ||
}
% At some point, I need to mix in the
% global info (signatures, barlines, etc.)
% via a music function.
globalSong = #(define-music-function (parser location mus) (ly:music?) #{
<< \relative { \key c \major s1*4 \bar "||" } \relative { $mus } >>
#})
% Since the global info is in concert,
% transpose the notes back to concert
% when making this invocation.
tenorSaxophoneGlobalSong = \globalSong { \transpose c bes,,
\tenorSaxophoneSongInBb }
% For transposed parts, transpose back
% the version in concert with the global info
\book {
\bookOutputSuffix "tenor-sax-in-Bb"
\header {
title = "C Jam Blues"
composer = "D. Ellington"
}
\score {
<<
\new Staff {
\set Staff.instrumentName = "Tenor Sax in Bb"
\transpose bes,, c \tenorSaxophoneGlobalSong
}
>>
\layout {
indent = 4\cm
}
}
}
% And use the concert version when convenient
\book {
\bookOutputSuffix "tenor-sax-concert"
\header {
title = "C Jam Blues"
composer = "D. Ellington"
}
\score {
<<
\new Staff {
\set Staff.instrumentName = "Tenor Sax (concert)"
\clef bass
\tenorSaxophoneGlobalSong
}
>>
\layout {
indent = 4\cm
}
\midi { }
}
}
HTH,
Elaine Alt
415 . 341 .4954 "Confusion is
highly underrated"
ela...@flaminghakama.com
Producer ~ Composer ~ Instrumentalist ~ Educator
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