[Orgmode] arranging and publishing music with Org-mode and lilypond

[Stefan Vollmar]

Dear all,

I believe that many members of this list with an interest in music (notation/composition) might find the http://lilypond.org project "addictive" (in the nicest possible manner): the concept is rather similar to writing TeX, there is very good Emacs support (if you know where to look), it is all OpenSource, there is extensive documentation (in LaTeX format with embedded lilypond snippets), the print quality is excellent.

I mention this because while arranging some piece of music recently, I noticed that Org-mode might be helpful in this context - it is probably already possible by tweaking org-babel a bit: lilypond encourages the user to structure music in a way that lends itself rather naturally to processing with Org-mode - you can assign a theme, a few bar with notes or even whole voices to variables and use them repeatedly. And imagine using Org-mode's outline capabilities to structure a piece of music. Exporting an org-file with lilypond-snippets in it to PDF or HTML might also be an interesting option.

I have not yet put any effort into it and just wanted to find out if anybody apart from me finds the combination of Org-mode and lilypond (potentially) exciting.

Warm regards,
Stefan

[Rustom Mody]

Hi Stefan

Maybe a bit OT but I find nted useful for my musical needs:
http://vsr.informatik.tu-chemnitz.de/~jan/nted/nted.xhtml
because it both plays and shows music quite well. [I use it to teach singing]
Does lilypond play also?

One small gripe with nted is that it exports but does not import lilypond.

Rustom

[Nick Dokos]

Post by Rustom Mody
Hi Stefan
http://vsr.informatik.tu-chemnitz.de/~jan/nted/nted.xhtml
because it both plays and shows music quite well. [I use it to teach singing]
Does lilypond play also?
One small gripe with nted is that it exports but does not import lilypond.

lilypond is a batch processor: it can produce MIDI files but it does not
play them.

Nick

[Stefan Vollmar]

Dear Rustom,

I have looked at the NtEd example and, obviously, this is also a very powerful piece of software. However, I see as a significant drawback that it only works on one platform and does not have the plain text TeX-ish appeal many on this list appreciate. But using it as a front-end for lilypond might be helpful for some users - similar to using equation editors with elaborate graphical user interfaces that can export TeX snippets.

As Nick has pointed out, lilypond can generate MIDI output along with high-quality PDF. At least in my examples, the MIDI output even reflected dynamics and voices correctly (a good way of checking a score).

I have written a simple elisp function: on pressing F1, the current lilypond buffer is compiled (in the usual meaning) and, on success, the resulting PDF opened. Nice: clicking on a note in the PDF file will open the appropriate lilypond file in Emacs - at the appropriate position (of that note). Instead of opening the PDF, one could play the MIDI file with an external player. However, although this will work well in general, there will still be cases where this kind of approach is not "immediate" enough if your focus is on fast audio feedback (ideally, you would want to mark a lilypond snippet in Emacs and listen to it immediately; if you keep the lilypond input simple enough, this is not so difficult to implement, maybe I will look into it).

Warm regards,
Stefan

Post by Rustom Mody
Hi Stefan
http://vsr.informatik.tu-chemnitz.de/~jan/nted/nted.xhtml
because it both plays and shows music quite well. [I use it to teach singing]
Does lilypond play also?
One small gripe with nted is that it exports but does not import lilypond.
Rustom
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[T.F. Torrey]

Hello,

Date: Sun, 03 Oct 2010 00:26:39 +0200
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1081)
X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Solaris 9
Subject: [Orgmode] arranging and publishing music with Org-mode and lilypond
Dear all,
I believe that many members of this list with an interest in music (notation/composition) might find the http://lilypond.org project "addictive" (in the nicest possible manner): the concept is rather similar to writing TeX, there is very good Emacs support (if you know where to look), it is all OpenSource, there is extensive documentation (in LaTeX format with embedded lilypond snippets), the print quality is excellent.
I mention this because while arranging some piece of music recently, I noticed that Org-mode might be helpful in this context - it is probably already possible by tweaking org-babel a bit: lilypond encourages the user to structure music in a way that lends itself rather naturally to processing with Org-mode - you can assign a theme, a few bar with notes or even whole voices to variables and use them repeatedly. And imagine using Org-mode's outline capabilities to structure a piece of music. Exporting an org-file with lilypond-snippets in it to PDF or HTML might also be an interesting option.
I have not yet put any effort into it and just wanted to find out if anybody apart from me finds the combination of Org-mode and lilypond (potentially) exciting.

I think this is very exciting.

Best regards,
Terry

Warm regards,
Stefan
--
Dr. Stefan Vollmar, Dipl.-Phys.
Head of IT group
Max-Planck-Institut für neurologische Forschung
Gleuelerstr. 50, 50931 Köln, Germany
Tel.: [phone] FAX [phone]
Tel.: [phone] Mobile: [phone]
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[John Hendy]

Post by T.F. Torrey
Hello,

Date: Sun, 03 Oct 2010 00:26:39 +0200
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1081)
X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Solaris 9
Subject: [Orgmode] arranging and publishing music with Org-mode and

lilypond

Dear all,
I believe that many members of this list with an interest in music

(notation/composition) might find the http://lilypond.org project
"addictive" (in the nicest possible manner): the concept is rather similar
to writing TeX, there is very good Emacs support (if you know where to
look), it is all OpenSource, there is extensive documentation (in LaTeX
format with embedded lilypond snippets), the print quality is excellent.

I mention this because while arranging some piece of music recently, I

noticed that Org-mode might be helpful in this context - it is probably
already possible by tweaking org-babel a bit: lilypond encourages the user
to structure music in a way that lends itself rather naturally to processing
with Org-mode - you can assign a theme, a few bar with notes or even whole
voices to variables and use them repeatedly. And imagine using Org-mode's
outline capabilities to structure a piece of music. Exporting an org-file
with lilypond-snippets in it to PDF or HTML might also be an interesting
option.

I have not yet put any effort into it and just wanted to find out if

anybody apart from me finds the combination of Org-mode and lilypond
(potentially) exciting.
I think this is very exciting.

Agreed! I've used Lilypond before and it's *awesome.* It's pretty much as
cool as LaTeX in my opinion. Write some text, export and holy crap you've
got magically beautiful sheet music! I had not thought of Org-mode
integration, but that would indeed be quite nifty.

John

Post by T.F. Torrey
Best regards,
Terry

Warm regards,
Stefan
--
Dr. Stefan Vollmar, Dipl.-Phys.
Head of IT group
Max-Planck-Institut für neurologische Forschung
Gleuelerstr. 50, 50931 Köln, Germany
Tel.: [phone] FAX [phone]
Tel.: [phone] Mobile: [phone]
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[Ben]

Agreed! I've used Lilypond before and it's awesome. It's pretty much as cool
as LaTeX in my opinion. Write some text, export and holy crap you've got
magically beautiful sheet music! I had not thought of Org-mode integration,
but that would indeed be quite nifty.

What an exciting perspective! org and lilypond combined together would
be ... well, just fantastic!

-- Ben

[Christian Moe]

Hi,

I've only used Lilypond for play, but I'd appreciate a Babel module
for Lilypond, if someone writes one.

My use case, for which I think Org is perfect, is maintaining simple
song collections: short scores interspersed with lyrics, printable as
a booklet. It is doable now but could clearly be done better with Babel.

So if someone's thinking about ob-lilypond, integration with
lilypond-book as a post-processing step would be useful.

Yours,
Christian

Post by T.F. Torrey
Hello,

Date: Sun, 03 Oct 2010 00:26:39 +0200
Subject: [Orgmode] arranging and publishing music with Org-mode

and lilypond

Dear all,
I believe that many members of this list with an interest in

music (notation/composition) might find the http://lilypond.org
project "addictive" (in the nicest possible manner): the concept
is rather similar to writing TeX, there is very good Emacs support
(if you know where to look), it is all OpenSource, there is
extensive documentation (in LaTeX format with embedded lilypond
snippets), the print quality is excellent.

I mention this because while arranging some piece of music

recently, I noticed that Org-mode might be helpful in this context
lilypond encourages the user to structure music in a way that
lends itself rather naturally to processing with Org-mode - you
can assign a theme, a few bar with notes or even whole voices to
variables and use them repeatedly. And imagine using Org-mode's
outline capabilities to structure a piece of music. Exporting an
org-file with lilypond-snippets in it to PDF or HTML might also be
an interesting option.

I have not yet put any effort into it and just wanted to find

out if anybody apart from me finds the combination of Org-mode and
lilypond (potentially) exciting.
I think this is very exciting.

[Shelagh Manton]

Post by Christian Moe
Hi,
I've only used Lilypond for play, but I'd appreciate a Babel module
for Lilypond, if someone writes one.
My use case, for which I think Org is perfect, is maintaining simple
song collections: short scores interspersed with lyrics, printable as
a booklet. It is doable now but could clearly be done better with Babel.
So if someone's thinking about ob-lilypond, integration with
lilypond-book as a post-processing step would be useful.
Yours,
Christian

I have had an ob-LilyPond on my list of things to do for quite a while
now. If I have the next few days off, I will seriously look into it.
But post integration with LilyPond-book is probably more than I would be
able to handle in the short term.

Cheers
Shelagh

Post by Christian Moe

Post by T.F. Torrey
Hello,

Date: Sun, 03 Oct 2010 00:26:39 +0200
Subject: [Orgmode] arranging and publishing music with Org-mode

and lilypond

Dear all,
I believe that many members of this list with an interest in

music (notation/composition) might find the http://lilypond.org
project "addictive" (in the nicest possible manner): the concept
is rather similar to writing TeX, there is very good Emacs support
(if you know where to look), it is all OpenSource, there is
extensive documentation (in LaTeX format with embedded lilypond
snippets), the print quality is excellent.

I mention this because while arranging some piece of music

recently, I noticed that Org-mode might be helpful in this context
lilypond encourages the user to structure music in a way that
lends itself rather naturally to processing with Org-mode - you
can assign a theme, a few bar with notes or even whole voices to
variables and use them repeatedly. And imagine using Org-mode's
outline capabilities to structure a piece of music. Exporting an
org-file with lilypond-snippets in it to PDF or HTML might also be
an interesting option.

I have not yet put any effort into it and just wanted to find

out if anybody apart from me finds the combination of Org-mode and
lilypond (potentially) exciting.
I think this is very exciting.

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[Christian Moe]

Post by Shelagh Manton
I have had an ob-LilyPond on my list of things to do for quite a while
now. If I have the next few days off, I will seriously look into it.
But post integration with LilyPond-book is probably more than I would be
able to handle in the short term.

Great!

Actually, forget my last message; I hadn't thought this through at
all. An ob-lilypond should allow us to dispense with lilypond-book.

#+begin_src lilypond :exports results :file song1.png
\relative c' { c d e f g a b c }
#+end_src

- no post-processing needed. But for the purposes I outlined, it would
be important to use these tricks in export:

http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.12/Documentation/user/lilypond-program/Alternate-methods-of-mixing-text-and-music#Alternate-methods-of-mixing-text-and-music


Yours,
Christian