Hi Simon and Filip,

The Bach MS in question is a handwritten autograph - not an engraving. As I
mentioned, engraving and handwriting are two quite different media. I think
it's a category error to conflate the two.

This topic interests me because I work with a New Complexity School
composer who is extremely attached to his self created music handwriting
style, very idiosyncratic and individual, non standard, and different, that
he developed over decades. When I first started working with him he
demanded in no uncertain terms that I make lilypond emulate his handwriting
down to the last detail. He had always refused to have his work engraved
because nobody could do it in any other program. After two years of
struggle, I finally convinced him that engraving is engraving and writing
is writing, and what you lose in 'personality' you gain in clarity. Along
the way, I did develop a big library of code to get closer to the
appearance he wants, including our own custom font and so on. So we now
have a compromise that I thin is clear and he thinks looks like his work.

The works published by JS Bach in his lifetime do not resemble his own
handwriting. he had to write quickly and fast to meet deadlines. I am sure
he understood copper engraving is a different medium altogether.

So I agree with you Simon, but its not one engraving style versus another,
it's engraving versus handwriting.

I guess it's a bit like LilyJazz. Jazz people seem to want engraved scores
to look like handwritten sheets done with a biro. But this always looks
terribly 'faux' to me.

Andrew


On 6 April 2018 at 04:52, Simon Albrecht <[email protected]> wrote:

>
> If you mimick the stem lengths and directions of the manuscript in
> LilyPond, your engraving will still differ from Bach’s manuscript in many
> ways. It’s a totally different style of engraving, which follows different
> rules.
>
>
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