Dear music enthousiasts, LilyPond version 2.0 was released today. LilyPond is an automated music notation system: it is used to make gorgeous sheet music. It is libre software ("open source"), and available for most Unix flavors, including Linux and MacOS X, and MS Windows. Use it for your music too! For this version, we have dramatically simplified many parts of the syntax, making it easier to use than ever before. Other improvements include quarter-tone accidentals, and conditional inclusion of music fragments. With version 2.0, we have a solid platform for working on notation and typography features for coming versions. Downloads, examples and documentation are available from the website, http://lilypond.org A big thank-you goes out to our hackers and bughunters: Mats Bengtsson, Heikki Junes, Juergen Reuter, Antonio Palama, Benjamin Milde, Daniel Berjon Diez, David Bobroff, David Rayleigh Arnold, Erik Ronstroem, Fabio dos Santos, Fodor Bertalan, Frederic Bron, Graham Parcival, Ian Bailey-Mortimer, John Williams, Josza Marton, Marco Caliari, Matthieu Amiguet, Michael Welsh Duggan, Patrick Atamaniuk, Paul Scott, Pedro Kroeger, Peter Lutek, Richard Schoeller, Thorkil Wolvendans, and Werner Trobin Happy music printing, Han-Wen Nienhuys & Jan Nieuwenhuizen (core development team) New features in 2.0 since 1.8 ***************************** * Crescendos can now be drawn dotted or dashed. * Quarter tones are now supported. They are entered by suffixing `ih' for a half-sharp and `eh' for a half-flat. Hence, the following is an ascending list of pitches: ceses ceseh ces ceh c cih cis cisih cisis * The following constructs have been removed from the syntax: \duration #SCHEME-DURATION \pitch #SCHEME-PITCH \outputproperty FUNC SYMBOL = VALUE For `\outputproperty', the following may be substituted: \applyoutput #(outputproperty-compatibility FUNC SYMBOL VALUE) * Clefs may now be transposed arbitrarily, for example \clef "G_8" \clef "G_15" \clef "G_9" * The syntax for chords and simultaneous music have changed. Chords are entered as <PITCHES> while simultaneous music is entered as <<..MUSIC LIST..>> In effect, the meanings of both have been swapped relative to their 1.8 definition. The syntax for lists in `\markup' has changed alongside, but figured bass mode was not changed, i.e.: \markup { \center <..LIST OF MARKUPS..> } \figure { <FIGURES> } As chords the more often used than simultaneous music, this change will save keystrokes. * Each music expression can now be tagged, to make different printed versions from the same music expression. In the following example, we see two versions of a piece of music, one for the full score, and one with cue notes for the instrumental part: << \tag #'part << { c4 f2 g4 } % in the part, we have cue-notes \\ R1 >> \tag #'score R1 % in the score: only a rest The same can be applied to articulations, texts, etc.: they are made by prepending -\tag #YOUR-TAGS to an articulation, for example, c4-\tag #'with-fingerings -4 -\tag #'with-strings \6 This defines a note, which has a conditional fingering and a string-number indication. * The settings for chord-fingering are more flexible. You can specify a list where fingerings may be placed, eg. \property Voice.fingeringOrientations = #'(left down) This will put the fingering for the lowest note below the chord, and the rest to the left. * The script previously known as `ly2dvi' has been renamed to `lilypond'. The binary itself is now installed as `lilypond-bin'. * Markup text (ie. general text formatting) may now be used for lyrics too. * Two new commands for grace notes have been added, `\acciaccatura' and `\appoggiatura', \appoggiatura f8 e4 \acciaccatura g8 f4 Both reflect the traditional meanings of acciaccatura and appogiatura, and both insert insert a slur from the first grace note to the main note. * Layout options for grace notes are now stored in a context property, and may now be set separately from musical content. * The `\new' command will create a context with a unique name automatically. Hence, for multi-staff scores, it is no longer necessary to invent arbitrary context names. For example, a two-staff score may be created by \simultaneous { \new Staff { NOTES FOR 1ST STAFF } \new Staff { NOTES FOR 2ND STAFF } } * Octave checks make octave errors easier to correct. The syntax is \octave PITCH This checks that PITCH (without octave) yields PITCH (with octave) in \relative mode. If not, a warning is printed, and the octave is corrected. * All articulations must now be entered postfix. For example, c8[( d8]) is a pair of beamed slurred eighth notes. * The definition of `\relative' has been simplified. Octaves are now always propagated in the order that music is entered. In the following example, PRE \repeat "unfold" 3 BODY \alternative { ALT1 ALT2 } POST the octave of BODY is based on PRE, the starting octave of ALT1 on BODY, the starting octave of ALT2 on ALT1, and the starting octave of POST on ALT2. The same mechanism is used for all other music expressions, except the chord. Backwards compatibility is retained through a special program option, which is set through #(ly:set-option 'old-relative) * Windows users can double click a `.ly' file to process and view it automagically through the new `lily-wins' frontend. New features in 1.8 since 1.6 ***************************** * The chord entry code has been completely rewritten. It is now cleaner and more flexible. * A new syntax has been added for text entry. This syntax is more friendly than the old mechanism, and it is implemented in a more robust and modular way. For more information, refer to the section on "Text markup" in the notation manual. * The integration of the input language and Scheme has been made deeper: you can now use LilyPond identifiers in Scheme, and use Scheme expressions instead of LilyPond identifiers. * The internal representation of music has been cleaned up completely and converted to Scheme data structures. The representation may be exported as XML. * A new uniform postfix syntax for articulation has been introduced. A beamed slurred pair of eighth notes can be entered as c8-[-( d8-]-) In version 2.0, postfix syntax will be the only syntax available, and the dashes will become optional. This will simplify the language: all articulations can be entered as postfix, in any order. * A new syntax has been added for chords: << PITCHES >> It is not necessary to update files to this syntax, but it will be for using LilyPond version 2.0. In version 2.0, this syntax will be changed to < PITCHES > for chords, and \simultaneous { .. } for simultaneous music. To convert your files from <PITCHES> to <<PITCHES>>, use the script included in buildscripts/convert-new-chords.py This change was introduced for the following reasons * It solves the "start score with chord" problem, where you have to state \context Voice explicitly when a chord was the start of a Staff or Score. * With the new syntax, it is possible to distinguish between articulations (or fingerings) which are for a single chord note, and which are for the entire chord. This allows for per-note fingerings, and is more logical on the whole. * User code may now be executed during interpreting. The syntax for this code is \applycontext #SCHEME-FUNCTION * User code may now be executed on arbitrary grobs during interpreting. The syntax for this feature is \applyoutput #SCHEME-FUNCTION SCHEME-FUNCTION takes a single argument, and is called for every grob that is created in the current context. * New algorithms for chord-name formatting have been installed. They can be tuned and have ergonomic syntax for entering exceptions. * Texts may now be put on multimeasure rests, e.g. R1*20^\markup { "GP" } * Ancient notation now prints ligatures in Gregorian square neumes notation, roughly following the typographical style of the Liber hymnarius of Solesmes, published in 1983. Ligatures are still printed without the proper line breaking and horizontal spacing. * Glissandi can now be printed using the zigzag style. * LilyPond can now print clusters. The syntax is \apply #notes-to-clusters { NOTE NOTE .. } * For irregular meters, beat grouping marks can be printed. The syntax for this is #(set-time-signature 7 8 '(3 2 2)) * Nested horizontal brackets for music analysis can now be printed: NOTE-\startGroup .. NOTE-\stopGroup * Ottava brackets are now fully supported as a feature. The syntax is #(set-octavation 1) * Metronome markings are printed when a \tempo command is processed. * Fingerings can be put on chords horizontally. * The appearance of various glyphs has been fine-tuned. * Different types of percent style repeats may now be nested. * The emacs support has been extended. * The manual has been completely revised and extended. New features in 1.6 since 1.4 ***************************** * Support for figured bass and tablature. * Completely rewritten beam formatting: provides much better output now. * Completely revised and improved music font. * Completely rewritten MIDI import support. * Completely rewritten grace note support. Practically speaking this means that grace notes can be slurred to normal normal notes. * Improved accidental handling and formatting: styles for producing cautionaries may vary, and complex collisions between accidentals of a chord are handled much better. * Better spacing: both globally and locally. This includes subtle details like optical stem spacing. * More support for ancient notation: mensural ligatures, ambitus (pitch range) of voices, more shapes, etc. * More support for piano notation: bracket pedals, directed arpeggios, arpeggio brackets. * Easier music polyphonic music entry. * More extensibility, many speedups and bugfixes * The manual has been thoroughly revised. * Development is now hosted at http://savannah.gnu.org, and sources can be downloaded through anonymous CVS. * Support for windows: LilyPond is part of the cygwin distribution, which comes with a user-friendly installer. -- Han-Wen Nienhuys | hanwen(a)cs.uu.nl | http://www.xs4all.nl/~hanwen