Re: Subject: String Concatenation, and Use of Unicode characters [sic]

[Flaming Hakama by Elaine]

> BTW, I also tend to prepare lead sheets in F and A.  Of course, you may not need this.  But if you are preparing a template, it might be helpful to include other common transpositions.

OK. The choice there is either to compile the file three times, adjusting \PieceTranspose in the sequence c c then c f then c a, or to make two more copies of the book-generating section, with  (e.g.) \PieceTransposeFourth and \PieceTransposeSixth in between.

This would make it all a bit unwieldy, and as I want to be able to share this with novice LilyPond users, I don?t want the make the file too long or too clever!

Sorry if I was not clear.  I wasn't suggesting that you transpose every piece to the keys of F and A, but rather to be able to produce lead sheets in those common keys as well:

HornTranspose =
#(define-music-function (parser location m)
   (ly:music?)
   #{ \transpose f, c  $m #})

AClarinetTranspose =
#(define-music-function (parser location m)
   (ly:music?)
   #{ \transpose a, c $m #})

Granted, A clarinet isn't too common for Jazz, but it can't hurt.  And as a clarinettist, I couldn't avoid the suggestion!

 

> But below, instead of using \PieceTranspose everywhere (which kind of defeats the purpose of doing something globally) I would suggest transposing \TheChords and \TheHead and then using \TransposedChords and \TransposedHead in the template:

This comes to the same thing, but uses two extra variables.

But I can see the advantage in doing this in terms of clarity if it comes immediately after the definition of the PieceTranspose function.

Besides that, I think that variables help if they clarify things.  In this case, it provides an explicit name for the result of "\PieceTranspose { \TheHead } " 

This introduce twos additional variables, but results in six fewer function calls.

Also, if I understand your intentions here, users of this template will never have to modify the score blocks, or these variables.  So, I don't see the down side of introducing them.  If anything, they separate boilerplate code (that doesn't have to be modified) from the piece-specific code (which does).

If part of your point is to make use of \transpose less fraught, I think you still have an issue, since

users of this template still have to modify "\transpose c c" within that function.  Something that might be more friendly:

originalKey = c
newKey = f

PieceTranspose =
#(define-music-function (parser location m)
   (ly:music?)
   #{ \transpose \originalKey \newKey $m #})

That way, your users won't have to figure out which "c" in "\transpose c c $m" to adjust.

Glad to hear this discussion has been helpful.

David Elaine Alt

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