Re: Transposing choral score

[David Wright]

On Mon 21 Oct 2019 at 09:52:06 (+0100), Graham King wrote:
> On 21 Oct 2019, at 05:11, David Wright <address@hidden> wrote:
> > On Sun 20 Oct 2019 at 11:39:46 (-0700), timecurve wrote:
> >> I am trying to transpose the attached file (Palestrina's /Missa Gabriel
> >> archangelus/) down a tone (from F major/d minor to Eb major/c minor). I 
> >> have
> >> looked through similar posts on this forum, and, being completely
> >> inexperienced with Lilypond, was not able to successfully follow their
> >> instructions. I would really appreciate your help with this! 
> > 
> > I added this string:
> > 
> > \transpose f es
> > 
> > after each occurrence of
> > 
> > \score {
> > 
> > with 14 occurrences in all. But be aware that apart from the incipits,
> > you put a line break between \score and {, making a global edit a bit
> > more difficult.
> > 
> > Why does it work. In the body of the mass,
> > 
> > \score { \transpose f es \new ChoirStaff … … }
> > 
> > the transpose directive applies to the *single* item which follows it,
> > and that is the \new ChoirStaff, which contains all the music. So it
> > all gets transposed.
> > 
> > In the incipits,
> > 
> > incipitcantus = \markup { \score { \transpose f es
> >    {
> >       \set Staff.instrumentName = \markup { \fontsize #1 "Cantus (S)" }
> >       \key f \major
> >       \clef violin
> >       s4 \bar ""
> >    }
> > 
> > the brace { on the second line encloses the several items following,
> > so the transpose directive applies to everything inside the braces,
> > which contains all the (blank) music. The braces make it all into
> > a *single* item as far as transpose is concerned.

> It's your choice of course, but there is no need to transpose incipits in 
> renaissance music.  In fact, it is positively unhelpful.  An incipit with the 
> first note in the original pitch tells the reader several things, including 
> what transposition the editor has applied.  In the case of Missa Gabriel 
> archangelus, the presence of a C4 clef in the bassus and G2 in the cantus 
> tells us that Palestrina wrote in "chiavi transportati" (chiavette) and that 
> transposition, at sight, down a fourth (in this case) might have been 
> expected.  If the editor transposes the incipits, that expectation can be 
> altered.

You're quite right, of course, and I would expect to see a stack of
rests (as appropriate) and the first note included in each one.

But in the example, transposing them was a teaching moment as it
nicely contrasts with the scores themselves. All my scores are
set very similarly:

#(set-global-staff-size 20)
\book {
  \bookOutputSuffix "piano"
  \score {
    \transpose af ef
    \new PianoStaff <<
      \new Staff <<

except most of course have \transpose f f. Leaving my reply at that
wouldn't explain that the third argument of \transpose must be a
single item, meaning that braces have to be added where necessary.
OTOH adding braces (or << >>) everywhere, "just in case", gets
criticised on this list.

> Hoping that saves you a little effort :)

BTW if the OP moves to 2.19, there's an \incipit command which might
save even more.

Cheers,
David.