> On 7 Mar 2015, at 11:22, Davide Liessi <davide.lie...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Il 03/03/15 07.56, Michael Hendry ha scritto: >>> Forgive me for suggesting, but I suggest it improves mental health to >>> think of transpose in the form: >>> >>> \transpose "to" "from" \musicExpression > > This is what I do, too: I usually think of transpose as `\transpose "to" > "from"` when tranposing instrumental parts from concert pitch to transposed > pitch, and as `\transpose "from" "to"` in all other cases. > >> I used to think of the transposition in this way until I found a need to >> transpose the whole piece to a different key (to accommodate a singer’s >> range, for example), and I found the two ways of looking at >> transposition tied my brain in knots. > > Indeed looking at the same command in two ways might be a bit confusing, but > I got used to it rather easily. > >> Ideally, I’d like to define the whole-piece transposition at the top of >> the file, rather than editing the per-instrument transposition at the >> point of book production. > > You certainly do not need to change the individual transpositions in order to > transpose an entire piece: nothing stops you from transposing music that has > already been transposed, instead of editing each `\transpose` command. > > When I need to transpose a piece I usually place `\transpose "from" "to"` > just before the music expression inside `\score`. > Unless I need to change the octave of an instrument, this is sufficient. > > E.g. if I needed to transpose this piece one tone up... > > \score { > << > \new Staff \transpose bes, c \trumpetPartConcert > \new PianoStaff << > \new Staff \pianoRight > \new Staff \pianoLeft > >> > >> > \layout { } > } > > ... I would simply write > > \score { > \transpose c d > << > \new Staff \transpose bes, c \trumpetPartConcert > \new PianoStaff << > \new Staff \pianoRight > \new Staff \pianoLeft > >> > >> > \layout { } > } > > Best wishes. > Davide
Thanks, Davide. I’m working on a template to share with other jazz musicians, especially students on the Jazz Course at St Andrews University, a few miles from here. Here is the section of the template where various standard transpositions are defined… % Transpose the whole piece PieceTranspose = #(define-music-function (parser location m) (ly:music?) #{ \transpose c c $m #}) % Adjust for various transposing instruments GuitarTranspose = #(define-music-function (parser location m) (ly:music?) #{ \transpose e e' $m #}) AltoTranspose = #(define-music-function (parser location m) (ly:music?) #{ \transpose ees c' $m #}) TrumpetTranspose = #(define-music-function (parser location m) (ly:music?) #{ \transpose bes c' $m #}) …and here is where these functions are called… #(define output-suffix "Concert") \book { \score { << \PieceTranspose { \TheChords } \PieceTranspose { \TheHead } >> \header { piece = \markup { \fontsize #-1 "Concert" } } } } % Guitar version - transposed up an octave #(define output-suffix "guitar") \book { \score { << \GuitarTranspose \PieceTranspose { \TheChords } \GuitarTranspose \PieceTranspose { \TheHead } >> \header { piece = \markup { \fontsize #-1 "Guitar" } } } } % Trumpet version - transposed up a tone #(define output-suffix "trumpet-Bb") \book { \score { << \TrumpetTranspose \PieceTranspose { \TheChords } \TrumpetTranspose \PieceTranspose { \TheHead } >> \header { piece = \markup { \fontsize #-1 "Trumpet in B" \smallFlat } } } } % Alto Sax version - transposed up a major sixth #(define output-suffix "alto-Eb") \book { \score { << \AltoTranspose \PieceTranspose { \TheChords } \AltoTranspose \PieceTranspose { \TheHead } >> \header { piece = \markup { \fontsize #-1 "Alto Sax in E" \smallFlat } } } } …the idea being that the code is reasonably self-documenting, and the user only has to define \TheChords and \TheHead and edit the title to get a set of parts in the necessary keys. Only one line needs to be edited to change the key of the piece. I’ve picked up a number of useful chunks of code from other list users, and I’m having to steer a middle course between heavy use of Scheme (which I struggle to follow) and a self-flagellating insistence on pure Lilypond! I’m going to try this template out on a number of pieces I’ve already transcribed, and if all goes well, I’ll report back to the list with the complete .LY file. Regards Michael _______________________________________________ lilypond-user mailing list lilypond-user@gnu.org https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user