2.9 Ancient notation

Support for ancient notation includes features for mensural notation, Gregorian chant notation, and Kievan square notation. These features can be accessed either by modifying style properties of graphical objects such as note heads and rests, or by using one of the pre-defined contexts for these styles.

Many graphical objects, such as note heads and flags, accidentals, time signatures, and rests, provide a style property, which can be changed to emulate several different styles of ancient notation. See

• Mensural note heads,
• Mensural accidentals and key signatures,
• Mensural rests,
• Mensural clefs,
• Gregorian clefs,
• Mensural flags,
• Mensural time signatures.

Some notational concepts are introduced specifically for ancient notation,

• Custodes,
• Divisiones,
• Ligatures.

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)custos section ‘custos’ in Music Glossary, (music-glossary)ligature section ‘ligature’ in Music Glossary, (music-glossary)mensural notation section ‘mensural notation’ in Music Glossary.

Notation Reference: Mensural note heads, Mensural accidentals and key signatures, Mensural rests, Gregorian clefs, Mensural flags, Mensural time signatures, Custodes, Divisiones, Ligatures.

2.9.1 Overview of the supported styles

Three styles are available for typesetting Gregorian chant:

• Editio Vaticana is a complete style for Gregorian chant, following the appearance of the Solesmes editions, the official chant books of the Vatican since 1904. LilyPond has support for all the notational signs used in this style, including ligatures, custodes, and special signs such as the quilisma and the oriscus.
• The Editio Medicaea style offers certain features used in the Medicaea (or Ratisbona) editions which were used prior to the Solesmes editions. The most significant differences from the Vaticana style are the clefs, which have downward-slanted strokes, and the note heads, which are square and regular.
• The Hufnagel (“horseshoe nail”) or Gothic style mimics the writing style in chant manuscripts from Germany and Central Europe during the middle ages. It is named after the basic note shape (the virga), which looks like a small nail.

Three styles emulate the appearance of late-medieval and renaissance manuscripts and prints of mensural music:

• The Mensural style most closely resembles the writing style used in late-medieval and early renaissance manuscripts, with its small and narrow, diamond-shaped note heads and its rests which approach a hand-drawn style.
• The Neomensural style is a modernized and stylized version of the former: the note heads are broader and the rests are made up of straight lines. This style is particularly suited, e.g., for incipits of transcribed pieces of mensural music.
• The Petrucci style is named after Ottaviano Petrucci (1466-1539), the first printer to use movable type for music (in his Harmonice musices odhecaton, 1501). The style uses larger note heads than the other mensural styles.

Baroque and Classical are not complete styles but differ from the default style only in some details: certain note heads (Baroque) and the quarter rest (Classical).

Only the mensural style has alternatives for all aspects of the notation. Thus, there are no rests or flags in the Gregorian styles, since these signs are not used in plainchant notation, and the Petrucci style has no flags or accidentals of its own.

Each element of the notation can be changed independently of the others, so that one can use mensural flags, petrucci note heads, classical rests and vaticana clefs in the same piece, if one wishes.

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)mensural notation section ‘mensural notation’ in Music Glossary, (music-glossary)flag section ‘flag’ in Music Glossary.

2.9.2 Ancient notation—common features

Pre-defined contexts

For Gregorian chant and mensural notation, there are pre-defined voice and staff contexts available, which set all the various notation signs to values suitable for these styles. If one is satisfied with these defaults, one can proceed directly with note entry without worrying about the details on how to customize a context. See one of the pre-defined contexts VaticanaVoice, VaticanaStaff, MensuralVoice, and MensuralStaff. See further

• Gregorian chant contexts,
• Mensural contexts.

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)mensural notation section ‘mensural notation’ in Music Glossary.

Notation Reference: Gregorian chant contexts, Mensural contexts.

Ligatures

A ligature is a graphical symbol that represents at least two distinct notes. Ligatures originally appeared in the manuscripts of Gregorian chant notation to denote ascending or descending sequences of notes on the same syllable. They are also used in mensural notation.

Ligatures are entered by enclosing them in \[ and \]. Some ligature styles may need additional input syntax specific for this particular type of ligature. By default, the LigatureBracket engraver just puts a square bracket above the ligature.

\relative { \[ g' c, a' f d' \] a g f \[ e f a g \] }

Two other ligature styles are available: the Vaticana for Gregorian chant, and the Mensural for mensural music (only white mensural ligatures are supported for mensural music, and with certain limitations). To use any of these styles, the default Ligature_bracket_engraver has to be replaced with one of the specialized ligature engravers in the Voice context, as explained in White mensural ligatures and Gregorian square neume ligatures.

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)ligature section ‘ligature’ in Music Glossary.

Notation Reference: White mensural ligatures, Gregorian square neume ligatures.

Known issues and warnings

Spacing required for ligatures is not currently implemented and, as a result, there may end up being too much space between them. Line breaking may also be unsatisfactory.

Lyrics might not align as expected when using ligatures.

Accidentals must not be printed within a ligature, but instead be collected and printed in front of it.

The syntax still uses the deprecated “infix” style \[ music expr \]. For consistency reasons, it will eventually be changed to “postfix” style note\[ … note\].

Custodes

A custos (plural: custodes; Latin word for “guard”) is a symbol that appears at the end of a staff. It anticipates the pitch of the first note of the following line, thus helping the performer to manage line breaks during performance.

Custodes were frequently used in music notation until the seventeenth century. Nowadays, they have survived only in a few particular forms of musical notation such as contemporary editions of Gregorian chant like the Editio Vaticana. There are different custos glyphs used in different flavors of notational style.

For typesetting custodes, just put a Custos_engraver into the Staff context when declaring the \layout block, and change the style of the custos with an \override if desired, as shown in the following example:

\score { \relative { a'1 \break g } \layout { \context { \Staff \consists "Custos_engraver" \override Custos.style = #'mensural } } }

The custos glyph is selected by the style property. The styles supported are vaticana, medicaea, hufnagel, and mensural.

\new Lyrics \lyricmode { \markup { \column { \typewriter "vaticana " \line { " " \musicglyph "custodes.vaticana.u0" } } } \markup { \column { \typewriter "medicaea " \line { " " \musicglyph "custodes.medicaea.u0" } }} \markup { \column { \typewriter "hufnagel " \line { " " \musicglyph "custodes.hufnagel.u0" } }} \markup { \column { \typewriter "mensural " \line { " " \musicglyph "custodes.mensural.u0" } }} }

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)custos section ‘custos’ in Music Glossary.

Snippets: (snippets)Ancient notation section ‘Ancient notation’ in Snippets.

Internals Reference: (internals)Custos section ‘Custos’ in Internals Reference.

2.9.3 Typesetting mensural music

Mensural contexts

The predefined MensuralVoice and MensuralStaff contexts can be used to engrave a piece in mensural style. These contexts initialize all relevant context properties and grob properties to proper values, so you can immediately go ahead entering the chant, as the following excerpt demonstrates:

\score { << \new MensuralVoice = "discantus" \relative { \hide Score.BarNumber { c''1\melisma bes a g\melismaEnd f\breve \[ f1\melisma a c\breve d\melismaEnd \] c\longa c\breve\melisma a1 g1\melismaEnd fis\longa^\signumcongruentiae } } \new Lyrics \lyricsto "discantus" { San -- ctus, San -- ctus, San -- ctus } >> }

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)mensural notation section ‘mensural notation’ in Music Glossary.

Mensural clefs

Mensural clefs are supported using the \clef command. Some of the clefs use the same glyph, but differ only with respect to the line they are printed on. In such cases, a trailing number in the name is used to enumerate these clefs, numbered from the lowest to the highest line.

\override NoteHead.style = #'vaticana.punctum \clef "vaticana-do1" c'1

\override NoteHead.style = #'medicaea.punctum \clef "medicaea-do3" c'1

\override NoteHead.style = #'hufnagel.punctum \clef "hufnagel-fa2" c'1

\override NoteHead.style = #'neomensural \clef "neomensural-c4" c'1

It is possible to manually force a clef glyph to be typeset on an arbitrary line, as described in Clef. For the complete range of possible clefs see Clef styles.

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)mensural notation section ‘mensural notation’ in Music Glossary, (music-glossary)clef section ‘clef’ in Music Glossary.

Notation Reference: Gregorian clefs, Clef.

Installed Files: ‘scm/parser-clef.scm’.

Snippets: (snippets)Pitches section ‘Pitches’ in Snippets.

Internals Reference: (internals)Clef_engraver section ‘Clef_engraver’ in Internals Reference, (internals)Clef section ‘Clef’ in Internals Reference, (internals)ClefModifier section ‘ClefModifier’ in Internals Reference, (internals)clef-interface section ‘clef-interface’ in Internals Reference.

Known issues and warnings

The Mensural g clef is mapped to the Petrucci g clef.

Mensural time signatures

There is limited support for mensuration signs (which are similar to, but not exactly the same as time signatures). The glyphs are hard-wired to particular time fractions. In other words, to get a particular mensuration sign with the \time n/m command, n and m have to be chosen according to the following table

Use the style property of grob TimeSignature to select ancient time signatures. Supported styles are neomensural and mensural. The above table uses the neomensural style. The following examples show the differences in style:

Time signature, gives a general introduction to the use of time signatures.

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)mensural notation section ‘mensural notation’ in Music Glossary.

Notation Reference: Time signature.

Known issues and warnings

Ratios of note durations cannot change with the time signature, as those are not constant. For example, the ratio of 1 breve = 3 semibreves (tempus perfectum) can be made by hand, by setting

breveTP = #(ly:make-duration -1 0 3/2)
…
{ c\breveTP f1 }

This sets breveTP to 3/2 times 2 = 3 times a whole note.

The mensural68alt and neomensural68alt symbols (alternate symbols for 6/8) are not addressable with \time. Use \markup {\musicglyph "timesig.mensural68alt" } instead.

Mensural note heads

For ancient notation, a note head style other than the default style may be chosen. This is accomplished by setting the style property of the NoteHead object to baroque, neomensural, mensural, petrucci, blackpetrucci or semipetrucci.

The baroque style differs from the default style by:

• Providing a maxima note head, and
• Using a square shape for \breve note heads.

The neomensural, mensural, and petrucci styles differ from the baroque style by:

• Using rhomboidal heads for semibreves and all smaller durations, and
• Centering the stems on the note heads.

The blackpetrucci style produces note heads usable in black mensural notation or coloratio sections in white mensural notation. Because note head style does not influence flag count, in this style a semiminima should be notated as a8*2, not a4, otherwise it will look like a minima. The multiplier can be different if coloratio is used, e.g., to notate triplets.

Use semipetrucci style to draw half-colored note heads (breves, longas and maximas).

The following example demonstrates the petrucci style:

\compressEmptyMeasures \autoBeamOff \override NoteHead.style = #'petrucci a'\maxima a'\longa a'\breve a'1 a'2 a'4 a'8 a'16 a' \override NoteHead.style = #'semipetrucci a'\breve*5/6 \override NoteHead.style = #'blackpetrucci a'8*4/3 a' \override NoteHead.style = #'petrucci a'\longa

Note head styles, gives an overview of all available note head styles.

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)mensural notation section ‘mensural notation’ in Music Glossary, (music-glossary)note head section ‘note head’ in Music Glossary.

Notation Reference: Note head styles.

Mensural flags

Use the flag-style property of grob Stem to select ancient flags. Besides the default flag style, only the mensural style is supported.

\relative c' { \override Flag.style = #'mensural \override Stem.thickness = #1.0 \override NoteHead.style = #'mensural \autoBeamOff c8 d e f c16 d e f c32 d e f s8 c'8 d e f c16 d e f c32 d e f }

Note that the innermost flare of each mensural flag is vertically aligned with a staff line.

There is no particular flag style for neo-mensural or Petrucci notation. There are no flags in Gregorian chant notation.

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)mensural notation section ‘mensural notation’ in Music Glossary, (music-glossary)flag section ‘flag’ in Music Glossary.

Known issues and warnings

Vertically aligning each flag with a staff line assumes that stems always end either exactly on or exactly in the middle of two staff lines. This may not always be true when using advanced layout features of classical notation (which however are typically out of scope for mensural notation).

Mensural rests

Use the style property of grob Rest to select ancient rests. Supported ancient styles are neomensural, and mensural.

The following example demonstrates these styles:

\compressEmptyMeasures \override Rest.style = #'mensural r\longa^"mensural" r\breve r1 r2 r4 r8 r16 s \break \override Rest.style = #'neomensural r\longa^"neomensural" r\breve r1 r2 r4 r8 r16

There are no 32nd and 64th rests specifically for the mensural or neo-mensural styles. Rests from the default style are used.

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)mensural notation section ‘mensural notation’ in Music Glossary.

Notation Reference: Rests.

Snippets: (snippets)Ancient notation section ‘Ancient notation’ in Snippets.

Known issues and warnings

The glyph for the maxima rest in mensural style is actually a perfect longa rest; use two (or three) longa rests to print a maxima rest. Longa rests are not grouped automatically, so have to be done manually by using pitched rests.

Mensural accidentals and key signatures

The mensural style provides a sharp and a flat sign different from the default style. Mensural notation rarely used a natural sign: instead the appropriate sharp or flat is used. For example, a B natural in the key of F major would be indicated with a sharp. However, if specifically called for, the natural sign is taken from the vaticana style.

The style for accidentals and key signatures is controlled by the glyph-name-alist property of the grobs Accidental and KeySignature, respectively; e.g.:

\override Staff.Accidental.glyph-name-alist =
  #alteration-mensural-glyph-name-alist

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)mensural notation section ‘mensural notation’ in Music Glossary, (music-glossary)Pitch names section ‘Pitch names’ in Music Glossary, (music-glossary)accidental section ‘accidental’ in Music Glossary, (music-glossary)key signature section ‘key signature’ in Music Glossary.

Notation Reference: Pitches, Accidentals, Automatic accidentals, Key signature.

Internals Reference: (internals)KeySignature section ‘KeySignature’ in Internals Reference.

Annotational accidentals (musica ficta)

In European music from before about 1600, singers were expected to chromatically alter notes at their own initiative according to certain rules. This is called musica ficta. In modern transcriptions, these accidentals are usually printed over the note.

Support for such suggested accidentals is included, and can be switched on by setting suggestAccidentals to true.

\relative {
  fis' gis
  \set suggestAccidentals = ##t
  ais bis
}

This will treat every subsequent accidental as musica ficta until it is unset with \set suggestAccidentals = ##f. A more practical way is to use \once \set suggestAccidentals = ##t, which can even be defined as a convenient shorthand:

ficta = { \once \set suggestAccidentals = ##t } \score { \relative \new MensuralVoice { \once \set suggestAccidentals = ##t bes'4 a2 g2 \ficta fis8 \ficta e! fis2 g1 } }

See also

Internals Reference: (internals)Accidental_engraver section ‘Accidental_engraver’ in Internals Reference, (internals)AccidentalSuggestion section ‘AccidentalSuggestion’ in Internals Reference.

White mensural ligatures

There is limited support for white mensural ligatures.

To engrave white mensural ligatures, in the layout block, replace the Ligature_bracket_engraver with the Mensural_ligature_engraver in the Voice context:

\layout {
  \context {
    \Voice
    \remove "Ligature_bracket_engraver"
    \consists "Mensural_ligature_engraver"
  }
}

There is no additional input language to describe the shape of a white mensural ligature. The shape is rather determined solely from the pitch and duration of the enclosed notes. While this approach may take a new user a while to get accustomed to, it has the great advantage that the full musical information of the ligature is known internally. This is not only required for correct MIDI output, but also allows for automatic transcription of the ligatures.

At certain places two consecutive notes can be represented either as two squares or as an oblique parallelogram (flexa shape). In such cases the default is the two squares, but a flexa can be required by setting the ligature-flexa property of the second note head. The length of a flexa can be set by the note head property flexa-width.

For example,

\score { \relative { \set Score.timing = ##f \set Score.defaultBarType = "-" \override NoteHead.style = #'petrucci \override Staff.TimeSignature.style = #'mensural \clef "petrucci-g" \[ c''\maxima g \] \[ d'\longa \override NoteHead.ligature-flexa = ##t \once \override NoteHead.flexa-width = #3.2 c\breve f e d \] \[ c\maxima d\longa \] \[ e1 a, g\breve \] } \layout { \context { \Voice \remove "Ligature_bracket_engraver" \consists "Mensural_ligature_engraver" } } }

Without replacing Ligature_bracket_engraver with Mensural_ligature_engraver, the same music looks as follows:

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)ligature section ‘ligature’ in Music Glossary.

Notation Reference: Gregorian square neume ligatures, Ligatures.

Known issues and warnings

Horizontal spacing of ligatures may be poor. Accidentals may collide with previous notes.

2.9.4 Typesetting Gregorian chant

When typesetting a piece in Gregorian chant notation, the Vaticana_ligature_engraver automatically selects the proper note heads, so there is no need to explicitly set the note head style. Still, the note head style can be set, e.g., to vaticana_punctum to produce punctum neumes. Similarly, the Mensural_ligature_engraver automatically assembles mensural ligatures.

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)ligature section ‘ligature’ in Music Glossary.

Notation Reference: White mensural ligatures, Ligatures.

Gregorian chant contexts

The predefined VaticanaVoice and VaticanaStaff can be used to engrave a piece of Gregorian chant in the style of the Editio Vaticana. These contexts initialize all relevant context properties and grob properties to proper values, so you can immediately go ahead entering the chant, as the following excerpt demonstrates:

\include "gregorian.ly" \score { << \new VaticanaVoice = "cantus" { \[ c'\melisma c' \flexa a \] \[ a \flexa \deminutum g\melismaEnd \] f \divisioMinima \[ f\melisma \pes a c' c' \pes d'\melismaEnd \] c' \divisioMinima \break \[ c'\melisma c' \flexa a \] \[ a \flexa \deminutum g\melismaEnd \] f \divisioMinima } \new Lyrics \lyricsto "cantus" { San- ctus, San- ctus, San- ctus } >> }

Gregorian clefs

The following table shows all Gregorian clefs that are supported via the \clef command. Some of the clefs use the same glyph, but differ only with respect to the line they are printed on. In such cases, a trailing number in the name is used to enumerate these clefs, numbered from the lowest to the highest line. Still, you can manually force a clef glyph to be typeset on an arbitrary line, as described in Clef. The note printed to the right side of each clef in the example column denotes the c' with respect to that clef.

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)clef section ‘clef’ in Music Glossary.

Notation Reference: Clef.

Gregorian accidentals and key signatures

Accidentals for the three different Gregorian styles are available:

As shown, not all accidentals are supported by each style. When trying to access an unsupported accidental, LilyPond will switch to a different style.

The style for accidentals and key signatures is controlled by the glyph-name-alist property of the grobs Accidental and KeySignature, respectively; e.g.:

\override Staff.Accidental.glyph-name-alist =
  #alteration-mensural-glyph-name-alist

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)accidental section ‘accidental’ in Music Glossary, (music-glossary)key signature section ‘key signature’ in Music Glossary.

Notation Reference: Pitches, Accidentals, Automatic accidentals, Key signature.

Internals Reference: (internals)KeySignature section ‘KeySignature’ in Internals Reference.

Divisiones

There are no rests in Gregorian chant notation; instead, it uses Divisiones.

A divisio (plural: divisiones; Latin word for ‘division’) is a staff context symbol that is used to indicate the phrase and section structure of Gregorian music. The musical meaning of divisio minima, divisio maior, and divisio maxima can be characterized as short, medium, and long pause, somewhat like the breath marks from Breath marks. The finalis sign not only marks the end of a chant, but is also frequently used within a single antiphonal/responsorial chant to mark the end of each section.

To use divisiones, include the file ‘gregorian.ly’. It contains definitions that you can apply by just inserting \divisioMinima, \divisioMaior, \divisioMaxima, and \finalis at proper places in the input. Some editions use virgula or caesura instead of divisio minima. Therefore, ‘gregorian.ly’ also defines \virgula and \caesura

Predefined commands

\virgula, \caesura, \divisioMinima, \divisioMaior, \divisioMaxima, \finalis.

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)caesura section ‘caesura’ in Music Glossary, (music-glossary)divisio section ‘divisio’ in Music Glossary.

Notation Reference: Breath marks.

Installed Files: ‘ly/gregorian.ly’.

Gregorian articulation signs

In addition to the standard articulation signs described in section Articulations and ornamentations, articulation signs specifically designed for use with notation in Editio Vaticana style are provided.

\include "gregorian.ly" \score { \new VaticanaVoice { \override TextScript.font-family = #'typewriter \override TextScript.font-shape = #'upright \override Script.padding = #-0.1 a\ictus_"ictus " \bar "" \break a\circulus_"circulus " \bar "" \break a\semicirculus_"semicirculus " \bar "" \break a\accentus_"accentus " \bar "" \break \[ a_"episema" \episemInitium \pes b \flexa a b \episemFinis \flexa a \] } }

See also

Notation Reference: Articulations and ornamentations.

Snippets: (snippets)Ancient notation section ‘Ancient notation’ in Snippets.

Internals Reference: (internals)Episema section ‘Episema’ in Internals Reference, (internals)EpisemaEvent section ‘EpisemaEvent’ in Internals Reference, (internals)Episema_engraver section ‘Episema_engraver’ in Internals Reference, (internals)Script section ‘Script’ in Internals Reference, (internals)ScriptEvent section ‘ScriptEvent’ in Internals Reference, (internals)Script_engraver section ‘Script_engraver’ in Internals Reference.

Known issues and warnings

Some articulations are vertically placed too closely to the corresponding note heads.

Augmentum dots (morae)

Augmentum dots, also called morae, are added with the music function \augmentum. Note that \augmentum is implemented as a unary music function rather than as head prefix. It applies to the immediately following music expression only. That is, \augmentum \virga c will have no visible effect. Instead, say \virga \augmentum c or \augmentum {\virga c}. Also note that you can say \augmentum {a g} as a shortcut for \augmentum a \augmentum g.

\include "gregorian.ly" \score { \new VaticanaVoice { \[ \augmentum a \flexa \augmentum g \] \augmentum g } }

See also

Notation Reference: Breath marks.

Internals Reference: (internals)BreathingSign section ‘BreathingSign’ in Internals Reference.

Snippets: (snippets)Ancient notation section ‘Ancient notation’ in Snippets.

Gregorian square neume ligatures

There is limited support for Gregorian square neumes notation (following the style of the Editio Vaticana). Core ligatures can already be typeset, but essential issues for serious typesetting are still lacking, such as (among others) horizontal alignment of multiple ligatures, lyrics alignment, and proper handling of accidentals.

The support for Gregorian neumes is enabled by \includeing ‘gregorian.ly’ at the beginning of the file. This makes available a number of extra commands to produce the neume symbols used in plainchant notation.

Note heads can be modified and/or joined.

• The shape of the note head can be modified by prefixing the note name with any of the following commands: \virga, \stropha, \inclinatum, \auctum, \descendens, \ascendens, \oriscus, \quilisma, \deminutum, \cavum, \linea.
• Ligatures, properly speaking (i.e., notes joined together), are produced by placing one of the joining commands \pes or \flexa, for upwards and downwards movement, respectively, between the notes to be joined.

A note name without any qualifiers will produce a punctum. All other neumes, including the single-note neumes with a different shape such as the virga, are in principle considered as ligatures and should therefore be placed between \[…\].

Single-note neumes:

• The punctum is the basic note shape (in the Vaticana style: a square with some curvation for typographical finesse). In addition to the regular punctum, there is also the oblique punctum inclinatum, produced with the prefix \inclinatum. The regular punctum can be modified with \cavum, which produces a hollow note, and \linea, which draws vertical lines on either side of the note.
• The virga has a descending stem on the right side. It is produced by the modifier \virga.

Ligatures

Unlike most other neumes notation systems, the typographical appearance of ligatures is not directly dictated by the input commands, but follows certain conventions dependent on musical meaning. For example, a three-note ligature with the musical shape low-high-low, such as \[ a \pes b \flexa g \], produces a Torculus consisting of three Punctum heads, while the shape high-low-high, such as \[ a \flexa g \pes b \], produces a Porrectus with a curved flexa shape and only a single Punctum head. There is no command to explicitly typeset the curved flexa shape; the decision of when to typeset a curved flexa shape is based on the musical input. The idea of this approach is to separate the musical aspects of the input from the notation style of the output. This way, the same input can be reused to typeset the same music in a different style of Gregorian chant notation.

Liquescent neumes

Another main category of notes in Gregorian chant is the so-called liquescent neumes. They are used under certain circumstances at the end of a syllable which ends in a ‘liquescent’ letter, i.e., the sounding consonants that can hold a tone (the nasals, l, r, v, j, and their diphthong equivalents). Thus, the liquescent neumes are never used alone (although some of them can be produced), and they always fall at the end of a ligature.

Liquescent neumes are represented graphically in two different, more or less interchangeable ways: with a smaller note or by ‘twisting’ the main note upwards or downwards. The first is produced by making a regular pes or flexa and modifying the shape of the second note: \[ a \pes \deminutum b \] , the second by modifying the shape of a single-note neume with \auctum and one of the direction markers \descendens or \ascendens, e.g., \[ \auctum \descendens a \] .

Special signs

A third category of signs is made up of a small number of signs with a special meaning (which, incidentally, in most cases is only vaguely known): the quilisma, the oriscus, and the strophicus. These are all produced by prefixing a note name with the corresponding modifier, \quilisma, \oriscus, or \stropha.

Virtually, within the ligature delimiters \[ and \], any number of heads may be accumulated to form a single ligature, and head prefixes like \pes, \flexa, \virga, \inclinatum, etc., may be mixed in as desired. The use of the set of rules that underlies the construction of the ligatures in the above table is accordingly extrapolated. This way, infinitely many different ligatures can be created.

Note that the use of these signs in the music itself follows certain rules, which are not checked by LilyPond. E.g., the quilisma is always the middle note of an ascending ligature, and usually falls on a half-tone step, but it is perfectly possible, although incorrect, to make a single-note quilisma.

In addition to the note signs, ‘gregorian.ly’ also defines the commands \versus, \responsum, \ij, \iij, \IJ, and \IIJ, that will produce the corresponding characters, e.g., for use in lyrics, as section markers, etc. These commands use special Unicode characters and will only work if a font is used which supports them.

The following table shows a limited, but still representative pool of Gregorian ligatures, together with the code fragments that produce the ligatures. The table is based on the extended neumes table of the 2nd volume of the Antiphonale Romanum (Liber Hymnarius), published 1983 by the monks of Solesmes. The first column gives the name of the ligature, with the main form in boldface and the liquescent forms in italics. The third column shows the code fragment that produces this ligature, using g, a, and b as example pitches.

Single-note neums

Two-note ligatures

Multi-note ligatures

Special Signs

Predefined commands

The following head prefixes are supported: \virga, \stropha, \inclinatum, \auctum, \descendens, \ascendens, \oriscus, \quilisma, \deminutum, \cavum, \linea.

Head prefixes can be accumulated, though restrictions apply. For example, either \descendens or \ascendens can be applied to a head, but not both to the same head.

Two adjacent heads can be tied together with the \pes and \flexa infix commands for a rising and falling line of melody, respectively.

Use the unary music function \augmentum to add augmentum dots.

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)ligature section ‘ligature’ in Music Glossary.

Notation Reference: Gregorian square neume ligatures, White mensural ligatures, Ligatures.

Known issues and warnings

When an \augmentum dot appears at the end of the last staff within a ligature, it is sometimes vertically placed wrong. As a workaround, add an additional skip note (e.g., s8) as last note of the staff.

\augmentum should be implemented as a head prefix rather than a unary music function, such that \augmentum can be intermixed with head prefixes in arbitrary order.

2.9.5 Typesetting Kievan square notation

Kievan contexts

As with Mensural and Gregorian notation, the predefined KievanVoice and KievanStaff contexts can be used to engrave a piece in square notation. These contexts initialize all relevant context properties and grob properties to proper values, so you can immediately go ahead entering the chant:

% Font settings for Cyrillic \paper { #(define fonts (set-global-fonts #:roman "Linux Libertine O,serif" )) } \score { << \new KievanVoice = "melody" \relative c' { \cadenzaOn c4 c c c c2 b\longa \bar "k" } \new Lyrics \lyricsto "melody" { Го -- спо -- ди по -- ми -- луй. } >> }

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)kievan notation section ‘kievan notation’ in Music Glossary.

Known issues and warnings

LilyPond supports Kievan notation of the Synodal style, as used in the corpus of chantbooks printed by the Russian Holy Synod in the 1910’s and recently reprinted by the Moscow Patriarchate Publishing House. LilyPond does not support the older (less common) forms of Kievan notation that were used in Galicia to notate Rusyn plainchant.

Kievan clefs

There is only one clef used in Kievan notation (the Tse-fa-ut Clef). It is used to indicate the position of c:

\clef "kievan-do" \kievanOn c'

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)kievan notation section ‘kievan notation’ in Music Glossary, (music-glossary)clef section ‘clef’ in Music Glossary.

Notation Reference: Clef.

Kievan notes

For Kievan square notation, the appropriate note head style needs to be chosen and the flags and stems need to be turned off. This is accomplished by calling the \kievanOn function, which sets the appropriate properties of the note head, stems, and flags. Once Kievan note heads are not needed, these properties can be reverted by calling the \kievanOff function.

The Kievan final note, which usually comes at the end of a piece of music, may be selected by setting the duration to \longa. The Kievan recitative mark, used to indicate the chanting of several syllables on one note, may be selected by setting the duration to \breve. The following example demonstrates the various Kievan note heads:

\autoBeamOff \cadenzaOn \kievanOn b'1 b'2 b'4 b'8 b'\breve b'\longa \kievanOff b'2

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)kievan notation section ‘kievan notation’ in Music Glossary, (music-glossary)note head section ‘note head’ in Music Glossary.

Notation Reference: Note head styles.

Known issues and warnings

LilyPond automatically determines if the stem up or stem down form of a note is drawn. When setting chant in square notation, however, it is customary to have the stems point in the same direction within a single melisma. This can be done manually by setting the direction property of the Stem object.

Kievan accidentals

The kievan style for accidentals is selected with the glyph-name-alist property of the grob Accidental. The kievan style provides a sharp and a flat sign different from the default style. There is no natural sign in Kievan notation. The sharp sign is not used in Synodal music but may occur in earlier manuscripts. It has been included primarily for the sake of compatibility.

\clef "kievan-do" \override Accidental.glyph-name-alist = #alteration-kievan-glyph-name-alist bes' dis'

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)kievan notation section ‘kievan notation’ in Music Glossary, (music-glossary)accidental section ‘accidental’ in Music Glossary.

Notation Reference: Accidentals, Automatic accidentals, The Emmentaler font

Kievan bar line

A decorative figure is commonly placed at the end of a piece of Kievan notation, which may be called the Kievan final bar line. It can be invoked as \bar "k".

\kievanOn \clef "kievan-do" c' \bar "k"

See also

Notation Reference: Bars, The Emmentaler font

Kievan melismata

Notes within a Kievan melisma are usually placed close to each other and the melismata separated by whitespace. This is done to allow the chanter to quickly identify the melodic structures of Znamenny chant. In LilyPond, melismata are treated as ligatures and the spacing is implemented by the Kievan_ligature_engraver.

When the KievanVoice and KievanStaff contexts are used, the Kievan_ligature_engraver is enabled by default. In other contexts, it can be invoked by replacing the Ligature_bracket_engraver with the Kievan_ligature_engraver in the layout block:

\layout {
  \context {
    \Voice
    \remove "Ligature_bracket_engraver"
    \consists "Kievan_ligature_engraver"
  }
}

The spacing between the notes within a Kievan ligature can be controlled by setting the padding property of the KievanLigature.

The following example demonstrates the use of Kievan ligatures:

% Font settings for Cyrillic \paper { #(define fonts (set-global-fonts #:roman "Linux Libertine O,serif" )) } \score { << \new KievanVoice = "melody" \relative c' { \cadenzaOn e2 \[ e4( d4 ) \] \[ c4( d e d ) \] e1 \bar "k" } \new Lyrics \lyricsto "melody" { Га -- врі -- и -- лу } >> }

See also

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)ligature section ‘ligature’ in Music Glossary.

Notation Reference: White mensural ligatures, Gregorian square neume ligatures, Ligatures.

Known issues and warnings

Horizontal spacing of ligatures is poor.

2.9.6 Working with ancient music—scenarios and solutions

Working with ancient music frequently involves particular tasks which differ considerably from the modern notation for which LilyPond is designed. In the rest of this section, a number of typical scenarios are outlined, with suggestions of solutions. These involve:

• how to make incipits (i.e., prefatory material to indicate what the original has looked like) to modern transcriptions of mensural music;
• how to achieve the Mensurstriche layout frequently used for modern transcriptions of polyphonic music;
• how to transcribe Gregorian chant in modern notation;
• how to generate both ancient and modern notation from the same source.

Incipits

It is customary when transcribing mensural music into modern notation to place an indication of how the initial rests and note or notes of the original version appeared - including the original clefs. This is called an incipit. The \incipit command uses the indent of the main staff to set the width occupied by the incipit, and incipit-width to set the width of the incipit staff.

\score { \new Staff << \new Voice = Tenor { \set Staff.instrumentName = "Tenor" \override Staff.InstrumentName.self-alignment-X = #RIGHT \incipit { \clef "mensural-c4" \key f \major r\breve r1 c'1 } \clef "treble_8" \key f \major R1 r2 c'2 | a4. c'8 } \new Lyrics \lyricsto Tenor { Cyn -- thia your } >> \layout { indent = 5\cm incipit-width = 3\cm } }

Known issues and warnings

Note that instrumentName must be set in the music for the incipit to be produced. If no instrument name is required then use \set Staff.instrumentName = "".

Mensurstriche layout

Mensurstriche (‘mensuration lines’) is the accepted term for bar lines that are drawn between the staves of a system but not through the staves themselves. It is a common way to preserve the rhythmic appearance of the original, i.e., not having to break syncopated notes at bar lines, while still providing the orientation aids that bar lines give.

The mensurstriche-layout where the bar lines do not show on the staves but between staves can be achieved with a StaffGroup instead of a ChoirStaff. The bar line on staves is blanked out using \hide.

global = { \hide Staff.BarLine s1 s % the final bar line is not interrupted \undo \hide Staff.BarLine \bar "|." } \new StaffGroup \relative c'' { << \new Staff { << \global { c1 c } >> } \new Staff { << \global { c c } >> } >> }

Transcribing Gregorian chant

Gregorian chant can be transcribed into modern notation with a number of simple tweaks.

Stems. Stems can be left out altogether by \remove-ing the Stem_engraver from the Voice context:

\layout {
  …
  \context {
    \Voice
      \remove "Stem_engraver"
  }
}

Timing. For unmetered chant, there are several alternatives.

The Time_signature_engraver can be removed from the Staff context without any negative side effects. The alternative, to make it transparent, will leave an empty space in the score, since the invisible signature will still take up space.

In many cases, \set Score.timing = ##f will give good results. Another alternative is to use \cadenzaOn and \cadenzaOff.

To remove the bar lines, the radical approach is to \remove the Bar_engraver from the Staff context. Again, one may want to use \hide BarLine instead, if an occasional bar line is wanted.

A common type of transcription is recitativic chant where the repeated notes are indicated with a single breve. The text to the recitation tone can be dealt with in two different ways: either set as a single, left-aligned syllable:

\include "gregorian.ly"
chant = \relative {
  \clef "G_8"
  c'\breve c4 b4 a c2 c4  \divisioMaior
  c\breve c4 c f, f \finalis
}

verba = \lyricmode {
  \once \override LyricText.self-alignment-X = #-1
  "Noctem quietam et" fi -- nem per -- fec -- tum
  \once \override LyricText.self-alignment-X = #-1
  "concedat nobis Dominus" om -- ni -- po -- tens.
}
\score {
  \new Staff <<
  \new Voice = "melody" \chant
  \new Lyrics = "one" \lyricsto melody \verba
  >>
  \layout {
    \context {
      \Staff
      \remove "Time_signature_engraver"
      \remove "Bar_engraver"
    }
    \context {
      \Voice
      \remove "Stem_engraver"
    }
  }
}

This works fine, as long as the text doesn’t span a line break. If that is the case, an alternative is to add hidden notes to the score, as below.

In some transcription styles, stems are used occasionally, for example to indicate the transition from a single-tone recitative to a fixed melodic gesture. In these cases, one can use either \hide Stem or \override Stem.length = #0 instead of \remove-ing the Stem_engraver and restore the stem when needed with the corresponding \undo \hide Stem.

\include "gregorian.ly"
chant = \relative {
  \clef "G_8"
  \set Score.timing = ##f
  \hide Stem
  c'\breve \hide NoteHead  c c c c c
  \undo \hide NoteHead
  \undo \hide Stem \stemUp c4 b4 a
  \hide Stem c2 c4  \divisioMaior
  c\breve \hide NoteHead c c c c c c c
  \undo \hide NoteHead c4 c f, f \finalis
}

verba = \lyricmode {
  No -- ctem qui -- e -- tam et fi -- nem per -- fec -- tum
  con -- ce -- dat no -- bis Do -- mi -- nus om -- ni -- po -- tens.
}

\score {
  \new Staff <<
    \new Voice = "melody" \chant
    \new Lyrics \lyricsto "melody" \verba
  >>
  \layout {
    \context {
      \Staff
      \remove "Time_signature_engraver"
      \hide BarLine
    }
  }
}

Another common situation is transcription of neumatic or melismatic chants, i.e., chants with a varying number of notes to each syllable. In this case, one would want to set the syllable groups clearly apart, usually also the subdivisions of a longer melisma. One way to achieve this is to use a fixed \time, e.g., 1/4, and let each syllable or note group fill one of these measures, with the help of tuplets or shorter durations. If the bar lines and all other rhythmical indications are made transparent, and the space around the bar lines is increased, this will give a fairly good representation in modern notation of the original.

To avoid that syllables of different width (such as “-ri” and “-rum”) spread the syllable note groups unevenly apart, the 'X-extent property of the LyricText object may be set to a fixed value. Another, more cumbersome way would be to add the syllables as \markup elements. If further adjustments are necessary, this can be easily done with s ‘notes’.

spiritus = \relative { \time 1/4 \override Lyrics.LyricText.X-extent = #'(0 . 3) d'4 \tuplet 3/2 { f8 a g } g a a4 g f8 e d4 f8 g g8 d f g a g f4 g8 a a4 s \tuplet 3/2 { g8 f d } e f g a g4 } spirLyr = \lyricmode { Spi -- ri -- _ _ tus _ Do -- mi -- ni _ re -- ple -- _ vit _ or -- _ bem _ ter -- ra -- _ rum, al -- _ _ le -- _ lu -- _ ia. } \score { \new Staff << \new Voice = "chant" \spiritus \new Lyrics = "one" \lyricsto "chant" \spirLyr >> \layout { \context { \Staff \remove "Time_signature_engraver" \override BarLine.X-extent = #'(-1 . 1) \hide Stem \hide Beam \hide BarLine \hide TupletNumber } } }

Ancient and modern from one source

Using tags to produce mensural and modern music from the same source

By using tags, it’s possible to use the same music to produce both mensural and modern music. In this snippet, a function menrest is introduced, allowing mensural rests to be pitched as in the original, but with modern rests in the standard staff position. Tags are used to produce different types of bar line at the end of the music, but tags can also be used where other differences are needed: for example using “whole measure rests” (R1, R\breve etc.) in modern music, but normal rests (r1, r\breve, etc.) in the mensural version. Note that converting mensural music to its modern equivalent is usually referred to as transcription.

menrest = #(define-music-function (note) (ly:music?) #{ \tag #'mens $(make-music 'RestEvent note) \tag #'mod $(make-music 'RestEvent note 'pitch '()) #}) MensStyle = { \autoBeamOff \override NoteHead.style = #'petrucci \override Score.BarNumber.transparent = ##t \override Stem.neutral-direction = #up } finalis = { \once \override BreathingSign.stencil = #ly:breathing-sign::finalis \once \override BreathingSign.Y-offset = #0 \once \override BreathingSign.minimum-X-extent = #'(-1.0 . 0.0) \once \override BreathingSign.minimum-Y-extent = #'(-2.5 . 2.5) \breathe } Music = \relative c'' { \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \key f \major \time 4/4 g1 d'2 \menrest bes4 bes2 a2 r4 g4 fis2. \tag #'mens { \finalis } \tag #'mod { \bar "||" } } MenLyr = \lyricmode { So farre, deere life, deare life } ModLyr = \lyricmode { So far, dear life, dear life } \score { \keepWithTag #'mens { << \new MensuralStaff { \new MensuralVoice = Cantus \clef "mensural-c1" \MensStyle \Music } \new Lyrics \lyricsto Cantus \MenLyr >> } } \score { \keepWithTag #'mod { \new ChoirStaff << \new Staff { \new Voice = Sop \with { \remove "Note_heads_engraver" \consists "Completion_heads_engraver" \remove "Rest_engraver" \consists "Completion_rest_engraver" } { \shiftDurations #1 #0 { \autoBeamOff \Music } } } \new Lyrics \lyricsto Sop \ModLyr >> } }

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