Previous: Augmentum dots (<em>morae</em>), Up: Typesetting Gregorian chant
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 \include
ing
"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.
\virga
,
\stropha
,
\inclinatum
,
\auctum
,
\descendens
,
\ascendens
,
\oriscus
,
\quilisma
,
\deminutum
,
\cavum
,
\linea
.
\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:
\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.
\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 diphtong 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
Basic and Liquescent forms | Output |
Lilypond code |
Punctum |
\[ b \]
| |
\[ \cavum b \]
| ||
\[ \linea b \]
| ||
Punctum Auctum Ascendens |
\[ \auctum \ascendens b \]
| |
Punctum Auctum Descendens |
\[ \auctum \descendens b \]
| |
Punctum inclinatum |
\[ \inclinatum b \]
| |
Punctum Inclinatum Auctum |
\[ \inclinatum \auctum b \]
| |
Punctum Inclinatum Parvum |
\[ \inclinatum \deminutum b \]
| |
Virga |
|
Two-note ligatures
Clivis vel Flexa |
\[ b \flexa g \]
| |
Clivis Aucta Descendens |
\[ b \flexa \auctum \descendens g \]
| |
Clivis Aucta Ascendens |
\[ b \flexa \auctum \ascendens g \]
| |
Cephalicus |
\[ b \flexa \deminutum g \]
| |
Podatus/Pes |
\[ g \pes b \]
| |
Pes Auctus Descendens |
\[ g \pes \auctum \descendens b \]
| |
Pes Auctus Ascendens |
\[ g \pes \auctum \ascendens b \]
| |
Epiphonus |
\[ g \pes \deminutum b \]
| |
Pes Initio Debilis |
\[ \deminutum g \pes b \]
| |
Pes Auctus Descendens Initio Debilis |
\[ \deminutum g \pes \auctum \descendens b \]
|
Multi-note ligatures
Torculus |
\[ a \pes b \flexa g \]
| |
Torculus Auctus Descendens |
\[ a \pes b \flexa \auctum \descendens g \]
| |
Torculus Deminutus |
\[ a \pes b \flexa \deminutum g \]
| |
Torculus Initio Debilis |
\[ \deminutum a \pes b \flexa g \]
| |
Torculus Auctus Descendens Initio Debilis |
\[ \deminutum a \pes b \flexa \auctum \descendens g \]
| |
Torculus Deminutus Initio Debilis |
\[ \deminutum a \pes b \flexa \deminutum g \]
| |
Porrectus |
\[ a \flexa g \pes b \]
| |
Porrectus Auctus Descendens |
\[ a \flexa g \pes \auctum \descendens b \]
| |
Porrectus Deminutus |
\[ a \flexa g \pes \deminutum b \]
| |
Climacus |
\[ \virga b \inclinatum a \inclinatum g \]
| |
Climacus Auctus |
\[ \virga b \inclinatum a \inclinatum \auctum g \]
| |
Climacus Deminutus |
\[ \virga b \inclinatum a \inclinatum \deminutum g \]
| |
Scandicus |
\[ g \pes a \virga b \]
| |
Scandicus Auctus Descendens |
\[ g \pes a \pes \auctum \descendens b \]
| |
Scandicus Deminutus |
\[ g \pes a \pes \deminutum b \]
|
Special Signs
Quilisma |
\[ g \pes \quilisma a \pes b \]
| |
Quilisma Pes Auctus Descendens |
\[ \quilisma g \pes \auctum \descendens b \]
| |
Oriscus |
\[ \oriscus b \]
| |
Pes Quassus |
\[ \oriscus g \pes \virga b \]
| |
Pes Quassus Auctus Descendens |
\[ \oriscus g \pes \auctum \descendens b \]
| |
Salicus |
\[ g \oriscus a \pes \virga b \]
| |
Salicus Auctus Descendens |
\[ g \oriscus a \pes \auctum \descendens b \]
| |
(Apo)stropha |
\[ \stropha b \]
| |
Stropha Aucta |
\[ \stropha \auctum b \]
| |
Bistropha |
\[ \stropha b \stropha b \]
| |
Tristropha |
\[ \stropha b \stropha b \stropha b \]
| |
Trigonus |
\[ \stropha b \stropha b \stropha a \]
|
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.
TODO: nothing here yet ...
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.
Autres langues : español.