Lilypond and Alternative Music Notations

The free program Lilypond is probably the most promising open-source application that could be adapted to display and print music in alternative music notation systems. For more on this open-source approach see Open-Source Strategy.

Lilypond is used by entering typed commands instead of by pointing and clicking with a mouse. Rather than provide a graphical user interface for editing scores, Lilypond's software developers concentrate on producing the highest-quality output, sheet music that looks as good as if it had been typeset by hand. It is simpler to add support for alternative music notations to a command-line program like Lilypond than to an application with a full graphical user interface.

Meanwhile, there are free open-source music notation applications that offer graphical editing that can export music to the Lilypond file format (for example: Canorus, MuseScore). One could use these applications to graphically edit music in traditional notation, and then export the music to Lilypond for transnotation into an alternative notation. And since Lilypond can import MusicXML files, any of the many applications that export to MusicXML could also be used in this way. (Given enough interest and resources, support for alternative notations could be added to an open-source graphical editor application like Canorus or MuseScore).

Adding Support for Alternative Notation Systems to Lilypond

Kevin Dalley volunteered his time and programming expertise to develop an enhanced version of Lilypond that has basic support for various types of chromatic staves. Mark Hanlon has also contributed by updating and maintaining the additional code so that it will continue to work with more recent versions of Lilypond. Andrew Wagner has set up a git repository for the patches and additional files on github.com to help organize and facilitate future work. (See Information for Developers.) We are grateful for their generous contributions.

Below are some images of chords in various notation systems that have been automatically generated using this enhanced version of Lilypond. They illustrate the different types of chromatic staves that are now possible.

Some features of these notation systems are not yet supported. For example: bold or dotted staff lines, automatically using notehead color for pitch, automatically placing notes on a particular side of the stem.

Eventually we would like to add support for more features of alternative music notation systems and add this enhanced functionality to the standard Lilypond application. More details are available under Information for Users, Information for Developers, and Kevin Dalley's website (where you can also see J.S. Bach's Invention 9 automatically transnotated into each of the notation systems below).

If you would like to help contribute to this effort, please contact us.

 

Traditional Music Notation

 

 

Basic 5-line Chromatic Staff

 

 

A prototype of Grace Frix's 5-Line Chromatic Staff is also implemented, but is not shown here since its staff is basically identical to the one above, except for a shift in pitch.

 

Prototype of Parncutt's 6-6 Tetragram

 

 

Prototypes of Ailler-Brennink chromatic notation by Albert Brennink and Untitled notation by Johann Ailler are also implemented, but are not shown here since their staves are basically identical to Parncutt's 6-6 Tetragram, except for a shift in pitch.

 

First steps toward Isomorph Notation by Tadeusz Wojcik
Bold lines are absent. Some pitches should be white/hollow noteheads. Notes are not always on the correct side of the stem. Noteheads should be circular and not oval.

 

 

First steps toward Untitled notation by Johannes Beyreuther
Some pitches should be white/hollow noteheads.

 

 

First steps toward Twinline Notation by Tom Reed
All pitches should be white/hollow noteheads. Notes are not always on the correct side of the stem.

 

Standard note heads are used for C, D, E, F#, G#, and A#. An upward pointing triangle is used for C#, F, and A, and a downward pointing triangle for D#, G, and B. The standard notehead and the upward pointing triangle are noteheads which are already available under LilyPond. Kevin has added the downward pointing triangle.

The standard notehead located in a space, the upward-pointing triangle before it, and the downward-pointing triangle after it are all in the same vertical position. This may cause undesirable behavior in beaming.

 

First steps toward Express Stave by John Keller
Some pitches should be white/hollow noteheads. Vertical spacing of notes is not compressed.

 

 

First steps toward Klavar, Mirck Version by Jean de Buur
Some pitches should be white/hollow noteheads. Notes are not always on the correct side of the stem. The external ledger lines are not correct. The groups of 3 lines should be darker than the groups of 2 lines. Noteheads should be circular and not oval.

 

 

First steps toward Avique notation by Ann and Bill Collins
The external ledger lines are not correct (but this does not appear in this example).

 

 

Kevin Dalley also experimented with the following notations:

 

Twinline, Kevin Dalley Version
This is a slightly different version of Twinline, with the standard vertical separation between the notes. The traditional notes do not always touch the lines. Each note has a different vertical position.

Chromatic Scale   |   Chord Example   

 

Untitled by Kevin Dalley
This is a version of Parncutt's 6-6 Tetragram with 3 styles of noteheads, with the noteheads changing at every semitone. This may work nicely with a chromatic accordion, which is a 4-4-4 instrument.

Chromatic Scale   |   Chord Example   

 

Lilypond Software Design once offered custom development for Lilypond. You could hire them to add a desired feature to the software. They even had a price list for open feature requests (prices since removed). However, they have been closed down since September 1, 2006.