Lilylead v0.1 (a program for creating leadsheets in Lilypond)

[seppo silaste]

I started using Lilipond to create leadsheets a couple of weeks ago and 
was very impressed with the printouts! Only problem was, that I found it 
very difficult to navigate the code while doing changes to lyrics and 
notes. Trying to find which lyrics word goes with which note seemed like 
a lot of unnecessary work for me. So I made a little program to make 
things easier (the concept is the same as with Latex on top of Tex). It 
enables me to insert a \lilylead {...} block into a lilypond file 
(actually the file has to be named 'filename.ll' because it will create 
'filename.ly') which looks like this (view with a monospaced font):

\lilylead {
 
\tempo 4=80

      <verse 1>
      g2:m               es   g:m                d:m
|bb4/4 g4  g16 g   a  bes r2 | g8. g16 g  g8  f16 d4 r |
      Puu-pa--nee-li-a        ruu-su--ta-pet-ti--a

 c1                                           es2    bes
| c8  bes16 c~8  bes16 c r16 c8   bes16 c8   d  | es4 r2.    |
 muo-vi----mat--to----ja    joil-la    luis-tel--la

}

(the lyrics are in finnish).

'|bb4/4' means b-flat major in 4/4. Keychanges and timechanges can be 
added anywhere after a '|'. Repeats can be added with '|: ... :|'. 
Alternate ending repeats can be added with '|: ... |* ... :|'. The 
'<verse 1>'-tag will appear in a box above the staff. The text between 
'<' and '>' can be anything. It will be attached as a '\markup' to the 
nearest note/rest/spacer on the melody line below. In this case it will 
be attached to the 'g4'.

Notice the 'c~8' which will translate to c~ c8. Since a tie will apply 
to the same pitch, I find it redundant to say ex. 'fis16~ fis4' so I 
just use 'fis16~4'. I'm trying to make the syntax as concise as possible 
withot sacrificing readability.

The syllables in the lyrics may be separeted with any number (>0) of 
'-':s to get them nicely aligned with the notes above. This does not 
have any syntactic meaning (i.e aligning a word with a note doesn't 
attach it to the note. It works exactly like the \addlyrics in 
Lilypond). Lilylead will parse the \lilylead block into a  \chords {} 
\relative c'' {} and \addlyrics {} making it a plain Lilypond file.

This format makes it a easier (at least for me) to keep track of
where I'm going. The program Lilylead parses this file and feeds it to
Lilypond. Anyone iterested can get it from me (opensource ;o)

cheers and thanks a lot for Lilypond: seppo