Re: Transposing instruments

[David Kastrup]

Francisco Vila <address@hidden> writes:

> 2013/1/31 Guy Stalnaker <address@hidden>:
>> Francisco,
>>
>> \transpose was working as expected -- the horn parts were rendered
>> the expected 5th higher. The issue was the midi output. It, too, was
>> rendered' a fifth higher.
>
> In other words: \transpose transposes music. You are right.
>
>> I could not figure out how to use \transpose and also get the
>> correct midi output. David Kastrup explained how \transpose works
>> and how \transposition then affects midi output only,
>
> I think you mean "\transposition is for displaying pitches only"

Huh?

>> which is what I wanted, which is the 'relationship' I mentioned. Of
>> course, were I old-school I could enter the horn part a 5th higher
>> directly and then use \transposition to get correct midi output. But
>> \transpose is a great feature that lets me input notes in concert
>> pitch and I like that.
>
> I think the great feature you like so much is \transposition, which
> lets you input notes in concerty pitch, shows an instrument
> transposition correctly, and does not affect MIDI.

I count this as another vote for "the current interface is confusing
even to long-time LilyPond users".

\transposition does _not_ affect the typesetting of notes (apart from
quoted music which needs to get adjusted for the respective values of
instrument pitch).

> Anyway, my point was:
>
>   \transpose <pitch> <pitch> { music ... }
>
> transposes music in { ... } . \transposition works differently. It
> does not affect next music expression. It is used the following way:
>
> { \transposition <pitch>
> music ...
> \transposition <another pitch> % a change of instrument?
> music ...
> }
>
> IMO this is very important because commands that affect an expression,
> like \transpose<pitch><pitch>{...} does, are catastrophic if you omit
> the curly brackets {... }, it would affect the first next expression
> encountered, and it could be a single note.

Sure.

-- 
David Kastrup