Re: roman numerals

[David Nalesnik]

Hi Michael,

On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 12:27 PM, Michael Rivers
<address@hidden> wrote:
> It would be very nice if Roman numeral analysis were integrated with figured
> bass in Lilypond. David's code works very well for chorale textures.
> However, because durations aren't specified, if the left hand of a piano
> part, for instance, has 16th note arpeggios but only one harmony, one needs
> to input \markup \rN {""} a huge number of times for each measure.

You don't need to go to all this trouble to skip notes to get the
Roman numerals where you'd like them to be.  An underscore will skip a
note.

But there's an easier way.  It's possible to enter lyrics with
durations attached.  See
http://www.lilypond.org/doc/v2.16/Documentation/notation/common-notation-for-vocal-music#manual-syllable-durations

Here's an example.  The duration is sticky, so all the Roman numerals
get a quarter-note duration:

<<
  \new Voice {
    \relative c {
      \clef bass
      c16 e g e
      bes16 c e g
      a,16 c f a
      aes,16 c d fis
    }
  }
  \new Lyrics \lyricmode {
    \markup \rN { I }4
    \markup \rN { V 4 2 / IV }
    \markup \rN { IV 6 }
    \markup \rN { Fr + 6 }
  }
>>

(Hopefully the "<<" at the top of the example and the ">>" will show
up when I send this to you.)

> Anyway, now that we know who wrote it the code, thank you, David.

You're welcome!  I'm glad to know that this is being used.

> Roman numerals were the one thing that made me have to go back to Sibelius, 
> and
> now I don't have to.

I don't think that Sibelius is going to be around much longer (at
least improved) given what's happened recently, so this sounds like a
wise move!

-David