Re: Survey: Large scores

[Kieren MacMillan]

Hi Urs,

> Basically I'd be interested in an estimate if there are practical limitations 
> where one would be better off skipping a commission because LilyPond would be 
> at its limit.

I have yet to reach that point, and I’ve Lily-pound four stage musicals, a 
chamber opera, 9-minute works for full orchestra and choir, and so on.

That being said, in most of my long works (i.e., musicals and operas), I am 
fortunate that I can compartmentalize the engraving work into much smaller 
sections (e.g., movements or even songs). For example, I have a 
“MyWork_fullscore_single” file, which I use to get each segment nearly to 
perfection; only once all the segments are nearly perfect on their own do I 
attempt to combine them all into the “MyWork_fullscore” file and compile the 
final score all at once.

My reaction (based mostly on the excruciating amount of time it took to 
recompile that 9-minute orchestra and choir work) is that I wouldn’t want to 
engrave even one act of a full-score unsegmented opera with Lilypond, unless I 
had a *very* good workflow (e.g., make 100-200 tweaks, press “compile”, go for 
an hour’s jog).

Hope this helps!
Kieren.
_______________________

Kieren MacMillan, composer
www:  <http://www.kierenmacmillan.info>
email:  address@hidden