Not sure if it will help you, but you can look at my solution for microtonal notation in this package: http://people.cs.ubc.ca/~kvdoel/tmp/persian.zip
Cheers, Kees ----- Original Message ----- From: Torsten Anders <torstenand...@gmx.de> Date: Monday, September 7, 2009 5:21 am Subject: Microtonal Helmholtz-Ellis notation in Lilypond: fine-tuning To: lilypond-user@gnu.org Cc: "tun...@yahoogroups.com" <tun...@yahoogroups.com> > Dear Lilyponders, > > Finally, I got some microtonal notation working in Lilypond that uses > a special font for the accidentals (i.e. not the usual Feta font), > please see the attached example PDF file. The full Lilypond code is > included at the end of this mail. This example shows a harmonic > seventh chord over C (first as an "arpeggio" and then all notes > together) using the "Extended Helmholtz-Ellis JI Pitch Notation" (HE > for short) by Marc Sabat and Wolfgang von Schweinitz. Besides > non- > Feta accidentals, the example also uses accidentals that consist of > multiple signs where additional signs show comma inflections (e.g., > the septimal comma before the B-flat in the example, the > harmonic 7th > over C). The required font and further information about this > notation is available at > > http://music.calarts.edu/~msabat/ms/pdfs/HE- > font-2009.zip. > > I implemented this microtonal notation by changing the notation of > accidentals to markups, following an idea by Graham Breed. Doing so > did not only allow for selecting a different font, but also for > accidentals that consist of more than a single sign. Changing > accidentals for individual notes in a chord was particularly tricky, > and I used an idea by Mark Polesky for this. > > Anyway, although this this approach to microtonal notation is already > usable, it could use some improvements. I would be grateful for > suggestions. > > The main problem is the horizontal spacing. Spacing with single-sign > accidentals works fine, Lilypond takes care of that automatically. > However, Lilypond does not know about multiple-sign accidentals, > so I > somehow have to create more horizontal space for these manually. The > Lily manual (http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.12/Documentation/user/ > lilypond/Horizontal-spacing-overview#Horizontal-spacing-overview) > suggests as a trick to use the following code, however I could not > get this approach working. What am I missing? > > \once \override Score.SeparationItem #'padding = #1 > > Instead, I globally increased the horizontal spacing (http:// > lilypond.org/doc/v2.12/Documentation/user/lilypond/Changing- > horizontal-spacing#Changing-horizontal-spacing). > > Any further idea to insert some additional horizonal space > before a > note in order to fit in complex accidentals? Spacing of multiple-sign > accidentals in a chord is even more tricky... > > The second issue is the readability of the Lilypond code. I defined > the music function \accidental that expects a markup and sets the > accidental of next note to that markup. I also started defining > readable accidental names that are mapped to the respective markup. > For example, the following two notes are first an untransposed C and > then an E a just major third above it: with respect to the > Phythagorean E it is transposed down by a syntonic comma (see the > second note in the attached example). > > c > \accidental \naturalSyntonicDown > e > > However, I failed to do the same for chord tones. I need to > define a > music function that creates the following code, but the markup should > be given as an argument, as above. > > \tweak #'before-line-breaking #(accidental-text (markup #:sans "m")) > > The problem might be that I do not know how to automatically > translate a Lily-syntax markup (e.g., \markup{\sans "m"}) into the > Scheme-syntax markup required here. > > Of course, I also cordially welcome any other ideas for improving > this approach to microtonal notation. > > Thank you! > > Best > Torsten > > -- > Torsten Anders > Interdisciplinary Centre for Computer Music Research > University of Plymouth > Office: +44-1752-586219 > Private: +44-1752-558917 > http://strasheela.sourceforge.net > http://www.torsten-anders.de > > > ----------------------------------------------- > %% Lily code (first various defs and then the score at the end) > > \version "2.12.00" > > %% Font "HE" must be installed (e.g., on MacOS in /Library/Fonts) > %% Font HE put in as 2nd font: can be accessed as \sans > \paper{ > #(define fonts (make-pango-font-tree "Century Schoolbook L" > "HE" > "Bitstream Vera Sans Mono" > 1)) > } > > \layout { > \context > { \Score > %% more space between all notes > (to allow for extra accidentals) > \override SpacingSpanner #'base- > shortest-duration = #(ly:make- > moment 1 16) > %% all accidentals are written as > markups \override Accidental > #'stencil = #ly:text-interface::print > %% default is natural accidental - > - causes error... > \override Accidental #'text = > #(markup #:sans "n") > } > } > > #(define (modify-accidental note-grob prop-alist) > ;; notehead before-line-breaking callback > (let ((accidental (ly:grob-object note-grob > 'accidental-grob))) > (if (not (null? accidental)) > (for-each > (lambda (x) > (ly:grob-set- > property! accidental (car x) (cdr x))) > prop-alist)))) > #(define (accidental-text markup) > (lambda (grob) > (modify-accidental grob `((text . > ,markup))))) > %% expects a markup and sets accidental of next note to that markup > accidental = > #(define-music-function (parser location markup) (markup?) > #{ > \once \override Accidental #'text = #$markup > #}) > > % %% !! Buggy > % %% expects a markup and sets accidental of next chord note to that > markup > % chordAccidental = > % #(define-music-function (parser location markup) (markup?) > % #{ > % \tweak #'before-line-breaking #(accidental-text > #$markup)% #}) > > > %% > %% Selection of accidentals to markups mappings, see HE-font-map.pdf > provided with font > %% > sharp = \markup{\sans "v"} > natural = \markup{\sans "n"} > flat = \markup{\sans "e"} > > sharpSyntonicUp = \markup{\sans "w"} > naturalSyntonicUp = \markup{\sans "o"} > flatSyntonicUp = \markup{\sans "f"} > sharpSyntonicDown = \markup{\sans "u"} > naturalSyntonicDown = \markup{\sans "m"} > flatSyntonicDown = \markup{\sans "d"} > > %% etc > > %% > %% The score > %% > > { > > %% there is an accidental for every note > #(set-accidental-style 'dodecaphonic) > > c' > \accidental \naturalSyntonicDown > e' > g' > \accidental \markup{\halign #0 \sans "<e"} > b' > > %% \override does not work for chords nor for > accidentals, but > %% here is a way: > %% see http://www.mail-archive.com/lilypond- > de...@gnu.org/ > msg22555.html > %% > %% TODO: def function that only expects > markup and returns > %% lambda-expression > < > c'! > \tweak #'before-line-breaking > #(accidental-text (markup #:sans > "m")) > e'! > g'! > \tweak #'before-line-breaking > #(accidental-text (markup > #:halign 0 #:sans "<e")) > b'!>2 > > } > > _______________________________________________ lilypond-user mailing list lilypond-user@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user
