Re: The composition process doesn't get disrupted using Lily Pond?

[anders . vinjar]

Hi Yakir!
>>>>> "Y" == Yakir Arbib <address@hidden> writes:

    Y> Can anyone here who is a composer and uses LilyPond to compose
    Y> give me some little insight about the process?

I'm a professional composer, working with contemporary music, and use
LilyPond extensively for notation.  For a given composition task I use
CAC-tools such as OpenMusic while doing most of my composition work,
then arrive at a 'LilyPond-stage' somewhere after halfway in the
composition process.

    Y> I mean if you are composing for more than one stave (I.E. piano
    Y> and cello or string quartet) how do you keep track of the music
    Y> if each stave has to be coded separately?

I find it very useful to work in bits or small sections of time, each
such 'section' typically organized as one functions in a separate
.ly-file.  Then include these files in a global master file, calling
these functions at the right place.

My 'sections' tend to be rather short, typically some bars, depending on
the vertical and horizontal complexity.

Working with more complex music, vertical information, ie. groupings of
instrument familys or whatever, can be separated and organized into
different files and functions in a similar way.

The master file sets up globals and contains general info for each
stave, then includes horizontal and vertical sections at will.

This flexibility makes it easy to compile only those parts of the music
i'm currently working on, typically by uncommenting those places in the
music i'm interested in right now in the master file.

Using emacs I can work transparently on the details of each section, and
control compilation and viewing from within that sections' file.  This
is possible by, in the file for each section, setting the value of the
local variable 'LilyPond-master-file to the master file.

-anders