3

I'm trying to write the first measure of the Moonlight in Lilypond enter image description here

From my very basic knowledge the first measure is 4 x 3 x 1/8 = 3/2 long, but the special symbol (alla breve) seams to be a 2/2. What I'm missing?

The lower part (bass), on the other side, is fine.

If someone knows Lilypond, here is my start

\version "2.19.82"

musicA = {
  \key e \major
  \time 2/2
  \overrideTimeSignatureSettings 3/2 3/8 #'(1 1 1 1) #'()
  \relative c' { g8 fis c' e g,8 c e g,8 c e g,8 c e }
}

musicB = {
  \clef bass
  \key e \major
  \time 2/2
  c1
}

\new PianoStaff {
  <<
    \context Staff = "up" {
      \accidentalStyle default
      \musicA
    }
    \context Staff = "down" {
      \accidentalStyle default
      \musicB
    }
  >>
}

All the notes are wrong, but I think/hope to know enough to correct it myself.

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2
  • 2
    triplets, dude! :-)
    – Carl Witthoft
    Commented Jul 18, 2019 at 15:33
  • 1
    It appears you're new to sheet music. I would recommend learning a bunch of stuff about notation and reading sheet music before trying to generate your own in LilyPond .
    – Carl Witthoft
    Commented Jul 18, 2019 at 15:34

3 Answers 3

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15

The notes in the upper staff are tuplets. As an aid towards your eventual goal, here is some sample code to create what you're looking for:

\version "2.19.82"

musicA = \relative c' {
  \key cis \minor
  \time 2/2
  \omit TupletNumber
  \override TupletBracket.bracket-visibility = ##f
  \tuplet 3/2 4 { gis8_\markup { \italic { sempre \dynamic pp e senza sordino } }
                  cis e gis,[ cis e] gis, cis e gis,[ cis e] } |
}

musicB = \relative c, {
  \clef bass
  \key cis \minor
  \time 2/2
  <cis cis'>1 |
}

\new PianoStaff {
  <<
    \context Staff = "up" {
      \accidentalStyle default
      \musicA
    }
    \context Staff = "down" {
      \accidentalStyle default
      \musicB
    }
  >>
}

This compiles:

enter image description here

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9

The notes on the treble clef are triplets. That's all.

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3
  • do you mean a triplet of 1/8 is 1/4 long instead of 3/8?
    – Aaron Lenz
    Commented Jul 17, 2019 at 22:35
  • 2
    If I'm not misinterpreting what you just wrote, yes, that's the way it is. If you need to check anything with some established version, here is the scan from a Leipzig publisher, which is identical to every version I've ever seen of this piece. Just to know: are you familiar with triplets? If not, you may want to look that up.
    – 89f3a1c
    Commented Jul 17, 2019 at 22:49
  • 4
    Music notation always leaves stuff out, stuff that (in that period) the composer deliberately left up to the performer to decide. But sometimes, like this, it abbreviates in a way that annoys computer programmers and language lawyers but is completely reasonable to the everyday performer.
    – Camille Goudeseune
    Commented Jul 18, 2019 at 1:55
4

Triplet eighths are 2/3 the duration of a real eighth, so if you don't want to put every note in a triplet you can also give all notes a scaled duration. So your music would be

\relative c' { gis8*2/3 cis e gis, cis e % etc

Remember to remove any other explicit durations so that implicit durations prevail from the first note here.

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