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<h4 class="unnumberedsubsec">Engraving</h4>
<p>The art of music typography is called <em>(plate) engraving</em>.
The term derives from the traditional process of music printing.
Just a few decades ago, sheet music was made by cutting and
stamping the music into a zinc or pewter plate in mirror image.
The plate would be inked, the depressions caused by the cutting
and stamping would hold ink. An image was formed by pressing
paper to the plate. The stamping and cutting was completely done
by hand. Making a correction was cumbersome, if possible at all,
so the engraving had to be perfect in one go. Engraving was a
highly specialized skill; a craftsman had to complete around five
years of training before earning the title of master engraver, and
another five years of experience were necessary to become truly
skilled.
<p>Nowadays, all newly printed music is produced with computers.
This has obvious advantages; prints are cheaper to make, and
editorial work can be delivered by email. Unfortunately, the
pervasive use of computers has also decreased the graphical
quality of scores. Computer printouts have a bland, mechanical
look, which makes them unpleasant to play from.
<!-- introduce illustrating aspects of engraving, font... -->
<p>The images below illustrate the difference between traditional
engraving and typical computer output, and the third picture shows
how LilyPond mimics the traditional look. The left picture shows
a scan of a flat symbol from an edition published in 2000. The
center depicts a symbol from a hand-engraved Bärenreiter edition
of the same music. The left scan illustrates typical flaws of
computer print: the staff lines are thin, the weight of the flat
symbol matches the light lines and it has a straight layout with
sharp corners. By contrast, the Bärenreiter flat has a bold,
almost voluptuous rounded look. Our flat symbol is designed
after, among others, this one. It is rounded, and its weight
harmonizes with the thickness of our staff lines, which are also
much thicker than lines in the computer edition.
<p><table summary=""><tr align="left"><td valign="top" width="13%"></td><td valign="top" width="25%">
<img src="../henle-flat-gray.png" alt="png">
<p></td><td valign="top" width="25%">
<img src="../baer-flat-gray.png" alt="png">
<p></td><td valign="top" width="25%">
<img src="../lily-flat-bw.png" alt="png">
<p><br></td></tr><tr align="left"><td valign="top" width="13%"></td><td valign="top" width="25%">
Henle (2000)
</td><td valign="top" width="25%">
Bärenreiter (1950)
</td><td valign="top" width="25%">
LilyPond Feta font (2003)
<br></td></tr></table>
<p><a name="index-musical-symbols-3"></a><a name="index-font-4"></a><a name="index-blackness-5"></a><a name="index-balance-6"></a>
<!-- introduce illustrating aspects of engraving, spacing... -->
In spacing, the distribution of space should reflect the durations
between notes. However, many modern scores adhere to the
durations with mathematical precision, which leads to poor
results. In the next example a motive is printed twice: once
using exact mathematical spacing, and once with corrections. Can
you spot which fragment is which?
<p><a name="index-optical-spacing-7"></a><!-- file spacing-optical. -->
<!-- need to include it here, because we want two images. -->
<p>
<a href="../e3/lily-08aba387.ly">
<img align="middle"
border="0" src="../e3/lily-08aba387.png" alt="[image of music]">
</a>
</p>
<p class="noindent"><p>
<a href="../dc/lily-b0e444b3.ly">
<img align="middle"
border="0" src="../dc/lily-b0e444b3.png" alt="[image of music]">
</a>
</p>
<p><a name="index-regular-rhythms-8"></a><a name="index-regular-spacing-9"></a>
Each bar in the fragment only uses notes that are played in a
constant rhythm. The spacing should reflect that. Unfortunately,
the eye deceives us a little; not only does it notice the distance
between note heads, it also takes into account the distance
between consecutive stems. As a result, the notes of an
up-stem/down-stem combination should be put farther apart, and
the notes of a down-stem/up-stem combination should be put
closer together, all depending on the combined vertical positions
of the notes. The upper two measures are printed with this
correction, the lower two measures without, forming
down-stem/up-stem clumps of notes.
<p><a name="index-typography-10"></a>
Musicians are usually more absorbed with performing than with
studying the looks of a piece of music, so nitpicking about
typographical details may seem academical. But it is not. In
larger pieces with monotonous rhythms, spacing corrections lead to
subtle variations in the layout of every line, giving each one a
distinct visual signature. Without this signature all lines would
look the same, and they become like a labyrinth. If a musician
looks away once or has a lapse in concentration, the lines might
lose their place on the page.
<p>Similarly, the strong visual look of bold symbols on heavy staff
lines stands out better when the music is far away from the
reader, for example, if it is on a music stand. A careful
distribution of white space allows music to be set very tightly
without cluttering symbols together. The result minimizes the
number of page turns, which is a great advantage.
<p>This is a common characteristic of typography. Layout should be
pretty, not only for its own sake, but especially because it helps
the reader in her task. For performance material like sheet
music, this is of double importance: musicians have a limited
amount of attention. The less attention they need for reading,
the more they can focus on playing the music. In other words,
better typography translates to better performances.
<p>These examples demonstrate that music typography is an art that is
subtle and complex, and that producing it requires considerable
expertise, which musicians usually do not have. LilyPond is our
effort to bring the graphical excellence of hand-engraved music to
the computer age, and make it available to normal musicians. We
have tuned our algorithms, font-designs, and program settings to
produce prints that match the quality of the old editions we love
to see and love to play from.
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Other languages: <a href="Engraving.fr.html">français</a>, <a href="Engraving.es.html">español</a>, <a href="Engraving.de.html">deutsch</a>.
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