Re: Twelve-tone notation

[Neil Puttock]

On 27 September 2010 01:34, Mark Polesky <address@hidden> wrote:

> Yes, that's what Neil was describing, but I'd like to add
> one wrinkle.  Maybe I'm wrong, but it's my understanding
> that the wide staff-spaces are not supposed to be twice as
> big, but 1.5 times.  So I don't think it's quite the same
> dimensions as it would be by Neil's description.  I think
> the first C is in the position of a traditional F, but the
> ledger lines that would normally cut through what used to be
> A and C now cut through what used to be G and B.

Ah, I hadn't noticed that, though funnily enough, it actually makes
the positioning inside the staff much simpler.

> Incidentally, an almost identical system is credited to
> Walter Steffens on p.32 of Gardner Read's "Music Notation".

I thought I'd seen it before. :)  The Steffens example has fewer
lines, but the spacing is the same for the wider staff-spaces.

> Would be fun to see this in action.

Any mapping is possible: it's up to the user to write the function
which maps pitches to position, though in this case ly:pitch-semitones
will suffice due to rounding.

\relative c' {
  \override Staff.StaffSymbol #'line-positions = #'(-4 -2 0 3 5 8 10 12)
  \set Staff.middleCPosition = #-10
  \set Staff.staffLineLayoutFunction = #ly:pitch-semitones
  % these are wrong due to incorrect legers
  c1 cis d dis e
  % all OK inside stave
  f fis g
  gis1 a ais b
  c1 des d es
  e1 f ges g
  as1 a bes ces
}

\layout {
  \context {
    \Staff
    \remove "Accidental_engraver"
    \remove "Time_signature_engraver"
  }
}

Cheers,
Neil