RE: Double-flats used by Lilypond after transpose

[Jonathan Clarke]

Yep sorry guys, I wrongly assumed that the sax player in our quartet
would prefer reading 6-flats than 6-sharps (I would, but as a concert
pitch player I'm used to reading things written in flat keys so that
the horns aren't in tough keys). But I've just spoken to him and he's
happier with the sharps... Thanks for your help!

-----Original Message-----
From: Toine Schreurs [mailto:address@hidden 
Sent: 01 August 2007 14:59
To: Cameron Horsburgh
Cc: address@hidden; address@hidden
Subject: Re: Double-flats used by Lilypond after transpose

The transposition of the instrument does not depend on the key of the
music. On a B-flat sax a written C sounds as a B-flat. That's all the
information
you need. 

So use \transpose bf c' {the music}

And indeed, key E-major goes to F-sharp-major. The original
transposition
from E-major to G-flat-major implies an A-sharp saxophone.

Toine Schreurs
> > I've been writing out a part for B-flat sax. I've written out the
music in 
> > concert pitch and so am using \transpose to display it in the
right key for the 
> > B-flat sax. The part I'm writing is in E-major when in concert
pitch, so this 
> > becomes G-flat-major when transposed for the B-flat instrument. 
> > 
> > The problem I'm having is that Lilypond is choosing to use double
flats for a 
> > number of particular notes when it prints out the B-flat part. For
example, if 
> > I write a G or an F in the concert part (which is in E-major)
these get written 
> > out as B-doubleflat and A-doubleflat respectively, in the B-flat
instrument 
> > part, instead of as A-natural and G-natural, which would be easier
to read in 
> > my opinion.
> > 
> 
> The other option would be to transpose the piece into F-sharp major,
which
> would (I presume) get rid of the double accidentals and be more
> (technically) correct.