Re: Lilypond's English Horn MIDI instrument is non-transposing?

[H. S. Teoh]

On Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 04:40:17PM -0500, James B. Wilkinson wrote:
[...]
> If I make it with the English horn part correctly transposed, the MIDI
> sounds terrible. If I make it with the English horn part untransposed,
> it sounds fine. My conclusion is that the midiInstrument "english
> horn" reads its part in C rather than in F. Shouldn't it play the
> notes that a real English horn would?
[...]

Lilypond actually doesn't know what an "english horn" is. As far as it's
concerned, that's just an arbitrary name for a particular program number
in the General Midi standard.  It does not assign any meaning to the
name beyond mapping it to that program number.[*]

To get the right transposition, you need to use the \transposition
directive (see the documentation for details) to tell Lilypond how the
pitches are supposed to be interpreted.


[*] In fact, I've used Lilypond to make MIDI performances of orchestras
with instruments that don't exist in the General Midi standard -- by
remapping program numbers to custom assignments. Lilypond is completely
unaware of this, however, and still expects General Midi names for
instruments. So what Lilypond thinks is an "english horn" in my score
could be, for example, a bass clarinet or Wagner horn in the final
output.  The identifier "english horn" is just a stand-in for midi
program #70.  How that program is actually rendered is not controlled by
Lilypond, but by the midi player (and how you configured it) downstream.


T

-- 
Heads I win, tails you lose.