Re: microtonal notation

[Han-Wen Nienhuys]

Bodo wrote:
> > Unfortunately, noone has come up with a sensible idea for 
> > linking both concepts, and I'm not familiar enough with 
> > microtones to judge what is right.
> >
> > What do you think of this idea:
> >
> >  * each pitch may be adjusted with a 'cents property (which 
> > is used in MIDI as well.)
> >
> >  * each note is compared to the tonic of the scale
> >
> >  * this difference, together with the microtonal adjustment 
> > is used to select which microtonal accidental should be printed.
>
>
> That sounds reasonable. The cents property would be relative to the nearest
> equal-tempered tone, right? That gives a maximum difference of + or - 50
> cents. I have some software that calculates this exact cent value, but I can
> imagine that this notation, while very precise, would be hard to enter for
> many people.
>
> I guess the harmonic-relative notation would be very convenient for people
> that specifically deal with overtone music. I'm not sure how useful it would
> be to others. The general cent notation would be able to solve everybody's
> needs, but be a pain to work with manually.


We have ample facilities to manipulate music expressions. It shouldn't 
be hard to write music functions that puts the correct cents setting 
into each NoteEvent, given a desired scale.
I could write a \setNaturalOvertoneCents function which automatically 
sets the 'cents property

  \setNaturalOvertoneCents { c c' g' c'' e'' .. }

> So far I have only talked about entering the notes. The other aspect of this
> is of course the output. For my purposes it would be enough to simply use up
> or down arrows to indicate a large deviation from the nearest tempered tone
> (for example more than 20 cents). A more advanced project would be something
> like the Helmholtz-Ellis notation, but that can be implemented later, as it
> is independent of the method of note input.

I could build that. Please let me know if you want to sponsor this feature.

(note: I'll be away during next week - apologies for any delays.)
--

Han-Wen Nienhuys - address@hidden - http://www.xs4all.nl/~hanwen

LilyPond Software Design
 -- Code for Music Notation
http://www.lilypond-design.com