Re: \fixed and \relative

[Aaron Hill]

On 2021-03-18 1:05 am, Paul Scott wrote:
> Would it be reasonable to have \fixed optionally take it's starting
> point from its first pitch like \relative does?  I jumped on this when
> this feature was added to \relative.  \fixed was the important reason
> I have now switched completely from \relative to \absolute.
>
> Am I missing anything that \absolute does that \fixed doesn't?

\absolute simply requires that all pitches specify their desired octave. 
 \fixed allows you to specify a default octave so that pitches only need 
apostrophes or commas to shift up or down from that octave.

It does not make sense for \fixed to use the first note as reference 
because it may not actually *be* the desired default octave.  Consider: 
\fixed c' { c' g e c } that results in \absolute { c'' g' e' c' }.  We 
start the melody an octave higher than the reference, so it's octave 
indication is not ideal.  Otherwise, you'd have to say \fixed { c'' g, 
e, c } which is worse than just using absolute pitches.

NOTE: When you use \fixed, you specify a pitch but only the octave 
indicator matters.  So \fixed c' and \fixed d' will have the same effect 
on the music that follows, where \fixed works with C as the root of the 
octave.  The best practice here is to always use C as the note name for 
\fixed, to avoid confusion.

A feature I would like \fixed to have is to honor the note name of the 
pitch so that you change that root note as well as the default octave.  
This would be helpful when entering music in scales other than C, as it 
lets you think about octaves in the relevant key signature.  So \fixed 
a' { a cis e a' } would produce \absolute { a' cis'' e'' a''' }, but 
currently you would have to use \fixed a' { a cis' e' a'' } since the 
cut-off for the octave is C.


-- Aaron Hill