Re: Transposing choral score

[David Wright]

On Sun 20 Oct 2019 at 11:39:46 (-0700), timecurve wrote:
> Palestrina_Missa_Gabriel_archangelus_-_1.ly
> <http://lilypond.1069038.n5.nabble.com/file/t5911/Palestrina_Missa_Gabriel_archangelus_-_1.ly>
>   
> 
> Hello, 
> I am trying to transpose the attached file (Palestrina's /Missa Gabriel
> archangelus/) down a tone (from F major/d minor to Eb major/c minor). I have
> looked through similar posts on this forum, and, being completely
> inexperienced with Lilypond, was not able to successfully follow their
> instructions. I would really appreciate your help with this! 

I added this string:

 \transpose f es

after each occurrence of

 \score {

with 14 occurrences in all. But be aware that apart from the incipits,
you put a line break between \score and {, making a global edit a bit
more difficult.

Why does it work. In the body of the mass,

\score { \transpose f es \new ChoirStaff … … }

the transpose directive applies to the *single* item which follows it,
and that is the \new ChoirStaff, which contains all the music. So it
all gets transposed.

In the incipits,

incipitcantus = \markup { \score { \transpose f es
    {
       \set Staff.instrumentName = \markup { \fontsize #1 "Cantus (S)" }
       \key f \major
       \clef violin
       s4 \bar ""
    }

the brace { on the second line encloses the several items following,
so the transpose directive applies to everything inside the braces,
which contains all the (blank) music. The braces make it all into
a *single* item as far as transpose is concerned.

Cheers,
David.