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Linuxmusician.com Interviews LilyPond Authors
jcn writes "Chris Cannam talks to
the authors of
one of the best-known and most ambitious music programs for Linux, the LilyPond score engraving system. Unlike other typesetting software like Finale or Sibelius, LilyPond is not a score editor, it aims to use simple textual description of the music and turn it into the highest possible quality output, automatically.
Han-Wen says: In my opinion, any file format that claims to be universal should have two properties: it should have an expressive structure, so other formats can be expressed in it, and it should be as lean as possible, so that converting from other formats amounts to removing information. I think that MusicXML fits neither. Ouch."
I don't understand why Lilypond aims to go back to having a proprietary textual format for typesetting music. Most people, I'd imagine, would want to typeset music graphically, as it's just more intuitive that way (I mean, I'm guessing that, for example, getting two voices per staff would be easier in a GUI system than having to manage the text input).
Anyone know of a GUI frontend to Lilypond?
If you think Sibelius is better than Lilypond, bully for you. Go use Sibelius or Finale. Really. No one will mind if you do. After all it's about playing music, not just looking at the printed page.
In the meantime there are people who care about getting it right, and who are willing to put in 10+ hours a week for years on hacking it. In addition to practicing and playing, and let's not forget their day jobs. It seems obvious to me that a labour of love will be of a higher quality than work done for hire by some schmoe who goes home after putting in his eight hours. Lilypond is well on its way to proving this.
Unlimited growth == Cancer.
Ok, well, that would account for like 95% of the musicians I know...
Huh? What issue of "how is a computer supposed to distinguish between a staccato quarter note and an eighth note?"??? Who the hell cares? I want something that I can enter the music into, and it looks good. A lot of programs can do that. Sibelius, Finale, Graphire Music Press, Encore.....a lot.
"You also threw in a cheap shot about lilypond's slurs -- a known deficiency, you didn't add anything. I have no doubt that slurs will soon be fixed."
Aww, sorry. Did it hurt? If there is anything people complain about, it's slurs. And, well, they ain't happening in Lillypod as far as I can see. Slurs and things colliding with other things. Finale and Sibelius have made a lot of headway in this area.
"If you think Sibelius is better than Lilypond, bully for you. Go use Sibelius or Finale. Really. No one will mind if you do. After all it's about playing music, not just looking at the printed page."
Exactly!! So, why would I waste my time using Lilypond? I could whip something out in a number of other programs, and they wouldn't have slur issues.
"In the meantime there are people who care about getting it right, and who are willing to put in 10+ hours a week for years on hacking it. In addition to practicing and playing, and let's not forget their day jobs. It seems obvious to me that a labour of love will be of a higher quality than work done for hire by some schmoe who goes home after putting in his eight hours."
Day job? Oh yeah, thats right, some people have "real jobs". I guess doing music full time doesn't count as a job. Thats great people want to do this sorta thing, but I don't see it being as good as some of the stuff already out there. Free or not, I am not wasting
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
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