Re: Absolute vs. relative pitches

[Trevor Daniels]

Eluze Weehaeli wrote Wednesday, August 13, 2008 9:59 AM

> May I report a personal impression I had reading the "Learning Manual":
>
> In the chapeter "2.5.4 Absolute note names" people are scared off using 
> absolute pitches. What for? The given example of Mozart can easily be 
> written with few octave characters - 2 commas - in absolute mode:
>
> { \key a \major  \time 6/8
>   \transpose c c'' { cis 8. d 16 cis 8 e 4 e 8 | b,8. cis 16 b,8 d 4 d 8 
> |}
>   }

This is a neat technique if the notes lie largely
in the same octave, but \transpose is not introduced
in the Learning Manual, so it can't be used there
without adding a fairly detailed section explaining
it first.

Perhaps it could be mentioned in the Notation Reference
though.

The Learning Manual is for learning users.  They will
usually begin with a simple melody and relative mode
-is- easier for this, once you realize all you have to
do is count staff spaces.

> On the other hand - did you try to write the second example of "Absolute 
> octave entry" in the user's guide in relative mode? Tell us - how many 
> corrections?
>
> \relative c' { \clef treble  c 4 c' e, g, d'' d, d, c \clef bass  c, c, e' 
> g'  d,, d' d' c }

Yes, but this is an artificial example to illustrate the principle
of absolute mode.  Using \relative for this would be harder, you're
quite right.

> Choosing different intervals - critical for the octave changing signs to 
> apply - you could make a practical exercise for interval recognition!
>
> Eluze

Trevor