Re: Meloz music notation with Lilypond

[Juergen Reuter]

On Sun, 29 Dec 2002, Jeremy Black wrote:

> I would like to print out sheet music in Meloz music notation.
> ...
> (http://www.dmamusic.org/meloz/about.html).

I just took a quick look at it.  The main problem I see is that they claim
to have a patent on their notation, and that print publishers have to get
a license prior to use.  On the other hand, I do not really understand
what is new or particular upon their notation: the notation is based on a
chromatic scale that is common for music notation of the 20th century;
and diamond shaped notes are used since (roughly) the 14th century.  The
only "new" thing I can see is the particular design of their staff symbol
that consists of three thin and three thick lines representing the 5 black
keys on a piano.  But even that is not really new; the "piano roll" view
of typical software sequencers looks quite similar.

> How do I make new note head shapes in Lilypond?

Lily already supports diamond shaped noteheads, see:
http://lilypond.org/stable/input/regression/out-www/lily-842380820.png

If you want to create additional notehead shapes, you have to learn
metafont and add your notehead to the file mf/feta-bolletjes.mf in
the lilypond source tree.

> Can Lilypond output the
> staff in a different format, like the one below, or do I need to do some
> programming in the Lilypond source code? (and where in the source code
> would I start?)

It should be quite simple to patch lily/staff-symbol.cc to produce a staff
symbol with thick and thin lines.  However, the main problem is the
vertical alignment of notes, rests, etc.  Currently, lilypond assumes a
diatonic scale based on the notenames, such that e.g. there is no
difference in vertical placement of "d flat", "d" and  "d sharp", while in
chromatic scale alignment, there is rather no difference in vertical
placement of e.g. "d flat" and "c sharp".  This might turn out to take
non-trivial effort to implement; maybe Han-Wen or Jan can tell you more
upon this.

On the other hand, for contemporary music notation (which is often based
on chromatic scales rather than on diatonic scales), it might be an
attractive option for lily to switch between diatonic and chromatic
placement of pitches.

Some general comment: The notation that you suggest claims to make easier
learning to play an instrument.  I think this is true in the sense that
the notation is close to what you are actually doing with your fingers on
keyed instruments such as the piano.  I also think it is true for better
recognizing and understanding music that is based on chromatic scales such
as dodecaphonic pieces (e.g. of Schoenberg or Webern).  But I think this
notation is bad for recognizing and understanding music (including
on-the-fly transposition) that is based on diatonic or pentatonic scales,
since the chromatic notation strips off alterations from the notes.  This
applies to the vast majority of existing music (probably more than 99%).

Hence I am a little bit in doubt upon the usefulness of this notation
except for the special cases mentioned above.  On the other hand, lily
already supports a lot of crazy features that are used only by few people,
so why not adding this kind of notation.  Still, maybe the legal situation
should be cleared to avoid being sued for applying a potentially patented
notation.

Greetings,
Juergen