Re: Figured Bass Questions part II

[Mats Bengtsson]

Trent J wrote:
> Good Afternoon All,
>
> Thanks to those who have helped so far with my figured bass problems.
>
> After reading many articles on the subject in the group... I came across 
> the intriguing idea of using ‘Lyrics’ to type set the figured bass. (And 
> is still at the moment nearly the only way to do so with finale2005)

Yes, just as the builtin support for figured bass, this solution gives
figures that are horizontally aligned. Otherwise, text scripts can be
even more convenient. Could you please summarize the problems you saw
with the ordinary FiguredBass environment and send it to bug-lilypond
or lilypond-devel, for the record. The lack of extender lines is clearly
one of the major problems. Another is the lack of font symbols for
figures with a slash to indicate sharp or flat, but that problem isn't
solved by your strategy either.

> Using Lyrics mode raises a couple of questions...
>
> 1.    How do I get the sharps/flats and naturals in... they’re not in 
> the standard Latin encoding?

As long as you use version 2.2.x or earlier, you can use the LateX
symbols $\sharp$ and $\flat$, but you have to enclose the full syllable
in double quotes and LilyPond won't understand how large these symbols
are, so the spacing may get a bit weird. Also, you don't get the nice
symbols from the LilyPond font. To print those, you can use
"\fetachar{\fetasharp}" and "\fetachar{\fetaflat}".

> 2.    Using the extender lines ie the melisma mode \melismaOn 
> \melismaOff I should be able to get figured bass extender lines but the 
> lyric extenders are set too low. They should be set halfway on the 
> number. Is there any chance of changing the height of the extender line 
> or would turning the hyphen into a continuous line be better or even 
> possible?

Just set the extra-offset property of the LyricsExtender object. To do
it for the full score, use something like:
\paper{
  \context{
    \LyricsContext
    \override LyricExtender #'extra-offset = #'(0 . 1)
  }
}


> 3.    Left or right aligned... I’m not to sure how lyric verses are 
> aligned whether they are aligned with each other or not or just with the 
> note. Eg.     If was to enter #3 in the first verse and enter 5 in the 
> second verse would it be under the 3? Or would left alignment be better 
> 3# and the 5 underneath the 3... slashes on notes etc don’t bother me as 
> sometimes the figures don’t really make sense especially in French 
> Figured Bass notation. A slash on a note can indicate either a raised 
> semitone or play a naturalised 5th (so actually strike the note down a 
> semitone – as a perfect 5th from Dsharp (Eflat) A  sharp (B flat). For 
> example in Couperin’s Les Nations which I’m typesetting at the moment  
> Couperin will indicate a slashed 5 over a D sharp the harmonies from the 
> other parts make it clear that Couperin didn’t mean an a sharp raised 
> semitone to B but rather down a semitone to a natural.

This is one of the problems with adding better support for figured bass,
namely that there are almost as many conventions as there are composers
from that time. If you want to change the alignment, see
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/lilypond-user/2004-09/msg00324.html

> 4.    How can I ensure that the verse lines are close together and not 
> separated by a lot of white space?

Change the minimumVerticalExtent property in the Lyrics context (see the
manual).

> Any help would be appreciated or any other solutions to the figured bass 
> problem that people might have. From the talk in the group a lot of 
> people have been setting baroque music but I have not seen any finished 
> examples showing how people solved their problems.

   /Mats