<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<!-- header_tag -->
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Music expressions explained - GNU LilyPond Learning Manual</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<meta name="description" content="GNU LilyPond Learning Manual">
<meta name="generator" content="makeinfo 4.11">
<link title="Top" rel="start" href="index.html#Top">
<link rel="up" href="Multiple-notes-at-once.html#Multiple-notes-at-once" title="Multiple notes at once">
<link rel="next" href="Multiple-staves.html#Multiple-staves" title="Multiple staves">
<link href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/" rel="generator-home" title="Texinfo Homepage">
<!--
Copyright (C) 1999--2007 by the authors
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License,
Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software
Foundation; with no Invariant Sections. A copy of the license is
included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
License''.
-->
<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css">
<style type="text/css"><!--
pre.display { font-family:inherit }
pre.format { font-family:inherit }
pre.smalldisplay { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller }
pre.smallformat { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller }
pre.smallexample { font-size:smaller }
pre.smalllisp { font-size:smaller }
span.sc { font-variant:small-caps }
span.roman { font-family:serif; font-weight:normal; }
span.sansserif { font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal; }
hr { border:0; height:1; color: #000000; background-color: #000000; }
/* hr {
border: none;
height: 1px;
color: #666666;
background-color: #666666;
}
body {
border-left: 1px solid #666666;
border-right: 1px solid #666666;
color: #332d28;
margin-right: auto;
margin-left: auto;
width: 60em;
list-style-type: square;
font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;
padding-right: 1em;
padding-left: 1em;
}
a {
border-bottom: 1px dashed #344242;
text-decoration: none;
color: #344242;
}
a:link {
text-decoration: none;
}
a:visited {
border-bottom: 1px dashed #666666;
color: #666666;
}
a:active {
border-bottom: 1px solid #00cccc;
color: #00cccc;
}
a:hover {
border-bottom: 1px solid #1d7b85;
color: #1d7b85;
}
blockquote {
border: 1px solid #cccccc;
padding: 3px;
width: 40em;
}
.node {
border-left: 1px solid #666666;
margin: -0.5em 0px 1em;
padding: 2px 1px 0px;
font-style: italic;
}
.node a {
border: none;
text-decoration: underline;
font-style: normal;
font-weight: bold;
}
.verbatim {
font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;
}
.unnumberedsubsubsec {
font-size: large;
color: #1d7b85;
}
.subsubheading {
font-size: large;
color: #3b220d;
}
.contents {
border: 1px dashed #339999;
margin: 3px 2em;
list-style-type: square;
padding-right: 1em;
width: 40em;
background-color: #fcfff9;
}
.contents a {
border-bottom: 1px dashed #423d34;
text-decoration: none;
color: #423d34;
}
.contents a:visited {
border-bottom: 1px dashed #666666;
color: #666666;
}
.contents a:active {
border-bottom: 1px solid #f0d86d;
color: #f0d86d;
}
.contents a:hover {
border-bottom: 1px solid #3b220d;
color: #3b220d;
}
.menu {
border-left: 1px dashed #339999;
margin: 3px 2em 1em;
list-style-type: square;
padding-left: 1.4em;
width: 40em;
}
.unnumbered {
}
h2 {
font-size: x-large;
color: #1d7b85;
}
*/
--></style>
</head>
<BODY BGCOLOR=WHITE TEXT=BLACK>
<div class="node">
<p>
<a name="Music-expressions-explained"></a>
Next: <a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Multiple-staves.html#Multiple-staves">Multiple staves</a>,
Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Multiple-notes-at-once.html#Multiple-notes-at-once">Multiple notes at once</a>
<hr>
</div>
<h4 class="subsection">2.3.1 Music expressions explained</h4>
<p>In LilyPond input files, music is represented by <em>music
expressions</em>. A single note is a music expression:
<blockquote>
<pre class="verbatim">
a4
</pre>
<p>
<a href="../15/lily-fe8e1128.ly">
<img align="middle"
border="0" src="../15/lily-fe8e1128.png" alt="[image of music]">
</a>
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Enclosing a note in braces creates a <em>compound music
expression</em>. Here we have created a compound music expression
with two notes:
<blockquote>
<pre class="verbatim">
{ a4 g4 }
</pre>
<p>
<a href="../1e/lily-5288cf98.ly">
<img align="middle"
border="0" src="../1e/lily-5288cf98.png" alt="[image of music]">
</a>
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Putting a group of music expressions (e.g. notes) in braces means
that they are in sequence (i.e. each one follows the previous
one). The result is another music expression:
<blockquote>
<pre class="verbatim">
{ { a4 g } f g }
</pre>
<p>
<a href="../fc/lily-1d75096e.ly">
<img align="middle"
border="0" src="../fc/lily-1d75096e.png" alt="[image of music]">
</a>
</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a name="index-expression-142"></a><a name="index-music-expression-143"></a>
<h4 class="subheading">Analogy: mathematical expressions</h4>
<p>This mechanism is similar to mathematical formulas: a big formula
is created by composing small formulas. Such formulas are called
expressions, and they can contain other expressions, so you can
make arbitrarily complex and large expressions. For example,
<pre class="example">1
1 + 2
(1 + 2) * 3
((1 + 2) * 3) / (4 * 5)
</pre>
<p>This is a sequence of expressions, where each expression is
contained in the next (larger) one. The simplest expressions are
numbers, and larger ones are made by combining expressions with
operators (like <code>+</code>, <code>*</code> and <code>/</code>) and parentheses.
Like mathematical expressions, music expressions can be nested
arbitrarily deep, which is necessary for complex music like
polyphonic scores.
<h4 class="subheading">Simultaneous music expressions: multiple staves</h4>
<p>Music Glossary: <a name="index-polyphony-144"></a><a href="../music-glossary/polyphony.html#polyphony">polyphony</a>.
<p>This technique is useful for <var>polyphonic</var> music. To
enter music with more voices or more staves, we combine
expressions in parallel. To indicate that two voices should play
at the same time, simply enter a simultaneous combination of music
expressions. A ‘simultaneous’ music expression is formed by
enclosing expressions inside <code><<</code> and <code>>></code>. In the
following example, three sequences (all containing two separate
notes) are combined simultaneously:
<blockquote>
<pre class="verbatim">
\relative c'' {
<<
{ a4 g }
{ f e }
{ d b }
>>
}
</pre>
<p>
<a href="../ac/lily-f9676f78.ly">
<img align="middle"
border="0" src="../ac/lily-f9676f78.png" alt="[image of music]">
</a>
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Note that we have indented each level of the input with a
different amount of space. LilyPond does not care how much (or
little) space there is at the beginning of a line, but indenting
LilyPond code like this makes it much easier for humans to read.
<p><table class="cartouche" summary="cartouche" border="1"><tr><td>
<b>Note:</b> each note is relative to the previous note in
the input, not relative to the <code>c''</code> in the initial
<code>\relative</code> command.
</td></tr></table>
<h4 class="subheading">Simultaneous music expressions: single staff</h4>
<p>To determine the number of staves in a piece, LilyPond looks at
the beginning of the first expression. If is a single note, there
is one staff; if there is a simultaneous expression, there is more
than one staff.
<blockquote>
<pre class="verbatim">
\relative c'' {
c2 <<c e>>
<< { e f } { c <<b d>> } >>
}
</pre>
<p>
<a href="../dd/lily-b108ef09.ly">
<img align="middle"
border="0" src="../dd/lily-b108ef09.png" alt="[image of music]">
</a>
</p>
</blockquote>
<!-- footer_tag --><br><hr>
<div class="node">
<p>
Next: <a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Multiple-staves.html#Multiple-staves">Multiple staves</a>,
Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Multiple-notes-at-once.html#Multiple-notes-at-once">Multiple notes at once</a>
</div>
<div style="background-color: #e8ffe8; padding: 2; border: #c0ffc0 1px solid;">
<p>
<font size="-1">
This page is for LilyPond-2.11.57 (development-branch).
<br>
<address>
Report errors to <a href="http://post.gmane.org/post.php?group=gmane.comp.gnu.lilypond.bugs">http://post.gmane.org/post.php?group=gmane.comp.gnu.lilypond.bugs</a>. </address>
<br>
Your <a href="http://lilypond.org/web/devel/participating/documentation-adding">suggestions for the documentation</a> are welcome.
</font>
</p>
</div>
<P>
Other languages: <a href="Music-expressions-explained.fr.html">français</a>, <a href="Music-expressions-explained.es.html">español</a>, <a href="Music-expressions-explained.de.html">deutsch</a>.
<BR>
</P>
</BODY></html>
