Re: Chords and what they mean

[Kieren MacMillan]

Hi all,

On Sep 17, 2015, at 10:10 PM, address@hidden wrote:
> If we are hoping to teach a computer program, i.e. LilyPond, to assign
> correct names to chords, then we have to really say what the
> considerations are that lead one name to be correct over another.

I don’t think anyone here is really hoping to teach Lily to assign correct 
names to chords. And since there are, between human musicians and theorists, 
significant disagreements about “correct”/“best" naming conventions — not to 
mention that a single arranger might have difficulty choosing between two (or 
more) names for the same chord — I think the artificial intelligence required 
is far beyond the scope of what Lilypond will ever have.***

What __is__ being done, as far as I can tell, is providing a mechanism for 
__users__ to tell Lilypond what to __print__ (not “assign”) when faced with a 
given vertical intervallic structure (a.k.a. “chord”), and supplying reasonable 
__defaults__ (so the user mustn’t start from zero).

Hope this helps!
Kieren.

*** Then again, some intrepid person with a lot of time on their hands and 
excellent coding skills might want to tackle such a Herculean task. There might 
be a “beauty score” that could be calculated in light of the harmonic movement 
before and after the chord in question — much like the way Lily decides between 
multiple slur options, the “best” chord name __might__ be calculable with, for 
some users, an acceptable failure rate.

________________________________

Kieren MacMillan, composer
‣ website: www.kierenmacmillan.info
‣ email: address@hidden