Re: \unfoldRepeats

[David Kastrup]

Marc Shepherd <oakapple2@gmail.com> writes:

> According to the documentation, the default behavior of the MIDI block is
> not to “unfold” repeats (other than those that are explicitly \repeat unfold).
> If you want repeats unfolded inside of a MIDI block, you have to requote
> the music within the MIDI block, nested inside of an \unfoldRepeats block.
>
> Any idea why that was chosen as the default behavior? When composers write
> a repeat, they usually expect it to be performed. I would have thought that
> automatically unfolding would be the more logical default.

The MIDI output of LilyPond is mainly intended for "proofhearing", not
as a performance; it has been fairly recently only that attempts to take
into account articulation marks (which are seminal for a performance)
have been added.  As such, unfolding repeats makes the material longer
without adding more information.

-- 
David Kastrup