Re: Transposing choral score

[Graham King]

It's your choice of course, but there is no need to transpose incipits in 
renaissance music.  In fact, it is positively unhelpful.  An incipit with the 
first note in the original pitch tells the reader several things, including 
what transposition the editor has applied.  In the case of Missa Gabriel 
archangelus, the presence of a C4 clef in the bassus and G2 in the cantus tells 
us that Palestrina wrote in "chiavi transportati" (chiavette) and that 
transposition, at sight, down a fourth (in this case) might have been expected. 
 If the editor transposes the incipits, that expectation can be altered.

Hoping that saves you a little effort :)
-- Graham


> On 21 Oct 2019, at 05:11, David Wright <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> 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.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> lilypond-user mailing list
> address@hidden
> https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user