Re: creating sheet music

[David Kastrup]

Stephen Haase <address@hidden> writes:

> I have been working with Sibelius to add a piano part to vocal music. I
> can get all the notes on the music. My problem is that I need to line up a 
> piano part with the vocal parts, and I don't want to transcribe the vocal 
> parts. I can get the right number of measures per line, but Sibelius does 
> not space the notes evenly throughout the measure when I drag the measure 
> to a different length. Can I use music21 and lilypond to create the sheet 
> music that will line up with the vocal music and to space the piano notes 
> correctly?

I don't think so.  LilyPond can be made to use strictly proportional
spacing for notes which is probably the best you can expect (but rarely
overly pretty).  But you cannot make it follow some particular spacing
(as the existing vocal part is unlikely to be exactly proportionally
spaced).  If you "don't want to transcribe the vocal parts" which would
allow LilyPond to create an overall satisfactory and consistent spacing,
you'll likely be putting in more effort than you'll get out in
satisfaction.

> I would like to know that it is possible before I get all involved
> with new software. My plan is to write the piano part and xerox it
> along with the vocal music.

The piano part will more likely than not be more work to create than the
vocal part.  So I consider it likely that transcribing all would likely
give an overall better return for the investment of time.

There are good reasons to change to LilyPond from Sibelius for that kind
of music: even though there are quite a few open issues with lyrics
spacing in the LilyPond issue tracker, results will often look quite
more consistent than with Sibelius.  Try looking for examples in the
manual (and/or on the web page).

However, that requires LilyPond actually being able to space the lyrics.
Your task description does not appear to match that.

-- 
David Kastrup