Re: Chord names broken since 2.16

[Thomas Morley]

Hi Amelie,

2015-03-15 10:57 GMT+01:00 Amelie Zapf <address@hidden>:
> Dear lilypond-user team,
>
> starting with LilyPond 2.16, and on into 2.18, the chord naming
> algorithm does not distinguish between a chord <c e g bes d> and <c e g
> d'> in relative notation. Both are named "C9".

Yep.
The 'additionalPitchPrefix' was changed to "", to get rid of too many "add" in certain names.

> This is wrong, since
> functionally, the former is a dominant, the latter a tonic, so there
> must be a distinction between the two.

I slightly disagree.
Yes, LilyPond should distinguish between those two chords per default.
Though, I can easily imagine situations where <c e g d> is dominant or subdominant or tonic, depends on the surrounding circumstances.

> The behavior up until 2.14 (which
> I used until recently) was correct, in which the former was called "C9",
> the latter "Cadd9".
>
> Is there a script file I can modify so I can get the system to behave
> correctly?
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Amy

2015-03-15 12:12 GMT+01:00 Amelie Zapf <address@hidden>:
> Dear lilypond-user team,
>
> problem solved: \set Score.additionalPitchPrefix = "add" does the trick.
> However, this should be default behavior, because C9 and Cadd9 are just
> not the same thing, but describe chords with vastly different harmonic
> function.

Again, I disagree here. Correct ChordNames (together with some common agreements) will show only which pitches are present, not their harmonic function.

Look at <c a c e> (rendered as C6)

Is it C-major with 6th replacing 5 or is it an inversion of a-minor?

I'd say, depends ...

Anyway, you already found
\set additionalPitchPrefix = #"add"

Though this will have the above already mentioned disadvantage, see the following example, last chord.

\new ChordNames
\chordmode {
    \set additionalPitchPrefix = #"add"
    <c' e' g' bes' d''>
    <c' e' g' d''>
    c:7.9
    c:5.9
    c:5.7+.11+.13
}

Another possibility would be to add <c e g d'> to 'chordNameExceptions':

chExceptionMusic = {
  <c e g d'>1-\markup { \super "add9" }
}

chExceptions =
#(append
   (sequential-music-to-chord-exceptions chExceptionMusic #t)
   ignatzekExceptions)
 
\new ChordNames
\chordmode {
  \set chordNameExceptions = #chExceptions
    <c' e' g' bes' d''>
    <c' e' g' d''>
    c:7.9
    c:5.9
    c:5.7+.11-.13
}

See:
http://www.lilypond.org/doc/v2.18/Documentation/notation/displaying-chords#customizing-chord-names

It may be discussable to add it to 'ignatzekExceptionMusic' from chord-modifiers-init.ly as default.

Cheers,

  Harm