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Re: Chords in LilyPond
From: |
Kieren MacMillan |
Subject: |
Re: Chords in LilyPond |
Date: |
Tue, 13 Jun 2017 14:59:34 -0400 |
Hi Ivan,
>> How is it "wrong" for the chord <c e g a> to [additionally]
>> include the information 'root = a'?
>
> In some instances the root could be C and the A would be a passing tone.
> In other instances, calling any of those four tones a root would
> have no meaning. It would depend on the context.
Correct.
> As I read through this thread though, the sense I get is that
> "chord semantics" are to be additional information optional
> added by the user, so that my fear of lilypond doing ad-hoc
> amateur musical analysis will not be happening (I hope not).
I believe the intention — at least initially — is, as you say, to only have
user-added semantics.
However, once a structure is in place to store and respond to such semantic
information, there is nothing to stop someone from trying to program Lilypond
to do "ad-hoc amateur musical analysis". And I hope they *do* (though I may
never use it myself). Certainly, with additional semantic information, any
analysis Lilypond attempts can only be better than it would be currently
(without such semantic information).
> I would hate to see parts of lilypond break because of the addition of
> musical analysis.
Well, I believe we're all on the same page there: Charles has been engaged
specifically to *improve* the chord system, not break it. ;)
> if the idea is for lilypond to do popular/amateur music
> analysis (calling every "a e g a" chord an a minor 7 chord
> regardless of contexts)
Again, with the addition of semantic information, Lilypond will be able to
ascertain the context of a chord (and vice versa) without any (or at least with
much less) manual/human input — this, in my opinion, can only be a good thing.
> that task/goal is going to have
> little meaning for most music.
I suppose that depends on you (or another user’s) definition of "most"… I have
friends who use Lilypond only for their pop music charts and lead sheets — for
them, a really good, context-sensitive chord generation and analysis tool would
have meaning on literally ALL of their music.
Cheers,
Kieren.
________________________________
Kieren MacMillan, composer
‣ website: www.kierenmacmillan.info
‣ email: address@hidden