Re: Feature Request: Chromatic note names

[Paul Morris]

address@hidden wrote
> And, lets say i get it back to lilypond with the correct pitches 
/
> and tritones
/
> , but the notes enharmonically wrong according to the key signature (lets
> say, e flats in a Emaj key, where should be d sharps).
> Doesnt lilypond has an "smart" transpose function that enharmonically
> changes notes?
> So i could always "smart" transpose anything to C major, and then use the
> normal transposition back to the desired key.

I think we should distinguish between sharp and flat notes that are *in* the
current key (like a B flat note in the key of B flat), and *accidental*
notes that are sharps, flats, or naturals that are outside of the current
key (like a B natural note in the key of B flat).  

1. Sharps and flats in the current key:
You could convert these notes from chromatic note names to the correct
standard notes/names, since you know the key.  It might be fairly
straightforward.  In a sharp key they all become sharps, in a flat key,
flats.  Your idea of transposing to C major / A minor and then to another
key might work.  You might be better off doing that in LilyPond without
having to export and import, but that would likely require using scheme to
do the conversion. The existing LilyPond transposition mechanisms might
help, but I think that they don't change the input, just the output, so I'm
not sure how that would work.

In other words, tritones between two notes in the given key (there are only
two of them) can always be reliably resolved to either an augmented fourth
or diminished fifth.


2. Accidentals:
For accidental notes there are no hard rules to follow to reach an
unambiguously correct result.  For example, an accidental note between F and
G could be an F# or a Gb (or even an E##), depending on what the composer
wrote.  You could automatically convert all accidentals to sharps or to
flats (depending on the key?), but you would then have to manually edit them
to make choices about which enharmonic notes to use: sharp or flat, etc. 
(If you are the composer of the music, that makes this simpler.)  


In a sense you can either come up with the traditional note names now by
entering the music with them, or you can defer this and do it later when/if
you convert to them.


Here is a snippet that may be what you were thinking of.  An altered version
of it might be able to give you what you need.  

"Transposing pitches with minimum accidentals ("Smart" transpose)"
http://lsr.dsi.unimi.it/LSR/Item?id=266



> Ill also see what I can do with the ledger lines, maybe I am able to write
> such scheme.
> But it seems that it will be tricky to get it working in \relative. much
> easier to set it when using absolute notation.

Relative vs absolute is not a problem because that is just the input mode,
and you would want to deal with the notes in absolute terms after LilyPond
parsed/determined them from the relative input.


> I mean, i cant just make all fi's to add dashed ledger line, because some
> of them will be the fi4 in the middle of staff, therefore no extra dashed
> ledger line is needed...
> It also depends on the octave that the staff is displaying, so i cant also
> make all fi5 add a ledger line, because if i use the "5th octave" clef, it
> will not be needed.

It would be tricky.  You would have to compare the pitch and octave of the
note with the current position of middle C on the staff (that way you
account for the current clef), and that would tell you if the note was
outside the staff or not.  Then you would have to figure out how to add
ledger lines and/or extend the staff if needed.



> Well, it is not a big problem anymore, i actually found a way to get both
> chromatic and traditional notations in the same file with the dodecapitch.
> It would just make thing easier.
> 
> [...]
> 
> its like starting a new file in the same page.. So when I click engrave,
> it displays both. This way the empty variables also work in the second
> part!

Can you post your file?  I'm curious to see how this is working.

Sounds like you have what you need to use your chromatic note names, and to
manually adjust the ledger lines as needed.  (Although more automation for
the ledger lines would be nice.)

Cheers,
-Paul




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