Re: Proposed new available and recommended behavior of \relative

[Jim Long]

On Thu, Mar 07, 2013 at 11:27:27PM +0100, Janek Warcho?? wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 8:06 PM, David Kastrup <address@hidden> wrote:
> > The idea is that \relative { ... } (namely \relative used without an
> > explicit reference pitch) uses the first note inside as the reference
> > pitch.  That is, if the first note happens to be written as fis'' it
> > will sound as fis'' (absolute pitch).
> 
> I was initially opposed to the idea of promoting this syntax as the
> default, but now i quite like it.
> 
> However, what will happen if the first entry is a chord?  Would
> \relative { <c' e' g'> <c e g> } mean { <c' e' g'> <c' e' g'> } or {
> <c' e'' g'''> <c' e' g'> } ?

I experimented earlier today with this case a tiny bit and
couldn't find any obvious breakdowns.  It also refreshed my
memory that \relative pertains to the *first* (not necessarily
the highest or lowest) pitch in the chord, and single notes
following a chord in a relative expression also follow the
*first* note of the chord.  See test example attached.

To address your exact question, I would understand David's
proposal to mean that the first *pitch* inside the music
expression would be taken as the reference pitch.  Subsequent
*pitches* are relative to the reference pitch.

\relative { <c' e' g'> <c e g> }

would mean the same as:

\relative c' { <c e' g'> <c e g> }

Both triads start on middle C, but the first is spread more than
two octaves, while the second is all in one octave.

> Also, what would happen if someone used q as the first thing after
> initial chord?

No change.  q works by repeating the pitches, not by "replaying"
the input syntax.  Otherwise even the current behaviour of:

\relative c { <c' e g> q q q }

would engrave each q an octave higher than the one before.


Jim

test.ly
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