Re: Score vs. Individual Parts

[Wol]

On 12/09/2022 18:25, Greg Lindstrom wrote:
> I have created my first full score for brass band and euphonium solo 
> using Lilypond (and Frescobaldi). The score looks wonderful; I've had it 
> bound at a local print shop and it looks downright professional. There 
> are a number of things to correct and I've created an issue for each and 
> will correct them and reengrave. Being a professional computer 
> programmer, I went to the trouble of checking everything into a code 
> repository (github) to ensure I can track all my changes and not lose 
> all this work if my computer decides to die.
>
> I've ordered the Lilypond manual from Lulu and plan to read through it 
> to learn more about Lilypond; I do much better with printed media rather 
> than electronic. but have questions:
>
>  1. I'd like to place line and page breaks in the individual parts.
>     Being a player, I appreciate when consideration is taken as to where
>     page breaks fall. I have individual files for each part with the
>     "notes" in a separate file and the score bringing everything
>     together. Is it possible to place breaks in the part so it does not
>     affect the score?

Dead easy. Different approach to Valentin, but I always create a part 
that is the music structure. No notes, just spacers, with all the 
rehearsal marks, repeats, that sort of stuff. Then I overlay the notes 
and if there is a mistake in either, it sticks out. I've had at least 
one piece where the copy parts had gone wrong, so the two parts and the 
structure all fought each other. Get that right for one part and it 
makes all the other parts easy.

Okay - that's not what you were asking, but just as I have two parts - 
overlaying the notes and the music, there's absolutely no reason why you 
can't overlay a third part - the page structure, spacers, line breaks, 
page breaks, ...

>  2. The score looks best on 11" x 17" paper but the first print shop
>     I contacted could not spiral bind anything that large (I found
>     another shop which could do it and I'm glad I did). I set the paper
>     size in the score to 8.5" x 11" and while things can fit, it is
>     extremely cramped. Is there a setting to reduce the size of
>     everything (staves, notes, dynamics, etc.) as I reduce the paper size?

Again, somewhere there is, and you just place that in the part file. I 
don't think it "scales with the size of the paper", but you will need a 
separate file for each part (what I call a part file) with the paper 
settings etc, and the scale settings just go in that.

>  3. On the individual part, I'd like to place the instrument name in the
>     upper left corner of the page. Currently, it is on the first staff.

Same as 2, you just set the settings differently in the part file.

>  4. Can I place a header on the second and following pages which would
>     show the title and page number of the piece in a smaller font than
>     the first page?

Again, same as 2. I've actually redefined the header .ly file (which is 
orchestral defaults) with a replacement that is more Brass Band defaults.

So much of what lilypond does is actually pull in a bunch of .ly macros 
and defaults, any of which you can over-ride and replace. So that's what 
I've done.
> Perhaps all of this is in the manual which will be arriving in the next 
> few days. But any help or direction would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks for your help. I hope to start writing code snippets and 
> answering questions as I gain more experience.
Dunno how you've laid out your current file, but I break all my bits 
into separate music variables. So I have a file for all the trombone 
parts in separate variables, likewise, cornet, bass etc etc.

As I said, a variable for the music structure ... all these are suffixed 
.ily (lilypond insert files).

And then my score and parts are in .ly files, and contain things like 
the \score structure, the \paper structure, the \layout, etc etc.

So a single piece will be splatted across quite a few files. But because 
everything makes heavy use of includes, it's all coherent.

One thing I ALWAYS ALWAYS do (because I'm a trombonist, I learnt in a 
Brass Band, then had a teacher who was an orchestra guy, NOT a brass 
band guy, so I read both treble and bass properly), is make sure ALL my 
music variables are in concert pitch.

If it's a treble clef part, the notes are wrapped in a "\transpose c' Bf 
{}", (or Ef, or F, or whatever whatever). If it's a bass clef part it's 
wrapped in "\transpose c' c' {}". I know that last seems odd, but it 
tells me that this part *has* been transposed, and *is* in concert.

Then when I output the part, I simply wrap it in "\transpose bf c' {}" 
for a treble part, or "\transpose c' c' {}" for a bass part. I don't 
have to think or worry about what sort of part my original was (and on 
the odd occasion where it matters, I also know whether my input part was 
treble or bass. I have VERY RARELY had the odd BF part in bass clef. 
Extremely confusing ...).

Cheers,
Wol