ABC2MTEX

An easy way of transcribing folk and traditional music

Version 1.6.1 January 97

Chris Walshaw
School of Maths, University of Greenwich, London, U.K. email: [email protected]

Contents
1 Introduction 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4

:::: The ABC2MTEX mailing list : Acknowledgements : : : : Copyright disclaimer : : : :

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1 1 1 1 1 1 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 6 6

2 Tune les 2.1 2.2

: abc tune notation : 2.2.1 Notes : : : : 2.2.2 Rests : : : : :

Note lengths 2.2.4

2.2.3 2.2.5 2.2.6 2.2.7 2.2.8 2.2.9

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Broken rhythms Beams

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Duplets, triplets, quadruplets, etc.

::::::::::: Repeat/bar symbols : : : First & second repeats : : Accidentals : : : : : : : : :::: Gracings : : : : : : Accents : : : : : : : Chords & unisons : Guitar chords : : : : Order of symbols : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :

2.2.10 Changing key, meter, and default note length mid-tune 2.2.11 Ties and slurs 2.2.12 2.2.13 2.2.14 2.2.15 2.2.16

2.3

2.4

:::::::::::: 2.2.18 New notation : : : : : : : : : : : 2.2.19 Line breaking & justication : : ABC2MTEX extensions : : : : : : : : : : : 2.3.1 User settings : : : : : : : : : : : 2.3.2 New notation : : : : : : : : : : : 2.3.3 Internote spacings : : : : : : : : 2.3.4 TEX input : : : : : : : : : : : : : Examples : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :
2.2.17 Comments

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3 Running abc2mtex 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6

: : Transposing tunes : : : : Running MusicTEX : : : : Customising the output : Using make : : : : : : : :

MusiXTEX : : : : : Multi-stave output

TEX input : : : : : : : : Command line options :

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4 Extensions 4.1 4.2

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5 Bugs and features 6 The future

ii

1 Introduction
Welcome to ABC2MTEX! This is a package written to typeset tunes stored in an ascii format or abc notation. It was designed primarily for folk and traditional tunes of Western European origin (such as Irish, English and Scottish) which can be written on one stave in standard classical notation. However, it can act as a fast preprocessor for multi-stave music (see x4.2) and should be extendible to many other types of music. The package is small, easy to use and features, amongst other things, the ability to transpose both the music and the abc notation. It will also create an index of all the tunes you have transcribed. The ability to write tunes in abc notation means that they can be easily and portably stored or transported electronically. This package allows you to typeset them easily too. In addition the notation is not specically tied to MusicTEX and similar packages have been written to translate to other formats such as postscript and MIDI. This package has, however, been written on top of MusicTEX, Daniel Taupins music typesetting package, itself written on top of TEX, Donald Knuths typesetting package. To run it you will need TEX, MusicTEX (both freely available by ftp from a number of sources see the README le), a C compiler (although executables are available for PCs and Macs) and access to a postscript printer.

1.1 Other abc packages

Since its introduction, abc has become a popular method for notating, playing and discussing music. There are several other packages available including typesetters which dont require the installation of TEX and MusicTEX, players (to play abc tunes through the speakers of most types of computer) and translators (e.g. to convert abc to MIDI and vice-versa). An up to date list is maintained at http://www.gre.ac.uk/c.walshaw/abc/.

1.2 The ABC2MTEX mailing list

An abc users mailing list has just been set up subscribe by sending the message subscribe abc-users to [email protected] . In addition, I keep a list of anyone who has mailed me to ask for a copy of the code and automatically notify them of new releases. If you have got the code by ftp and want to be added to the list just mail me [email protected]. Trafc is low maybe one message every couple of months, if that.

1.3 Acknowledgements
Thanks to everyone who has helped to improve this package: John Walsh, Don Ward, Steve Allen, David West, Roger Negaret, Hugh Stewart, Rich Holmes, Olivier Clary, Jeroen Nijhof (for the transposition of accidentals algorithm), Paul Anderson (for the Mac version), Michael Methfessel and everyone else.

1.4 Copyright disclaimer

The author does not accept responsibility for any copyright infringement which occurs through the use of this package. It is the responsibility of the user to ensure that tunes and/or arrangements typeset with the help of ABC2MTEX lie within the public domain. Happily this is the case with most traditional music.

2 Tune les
The music can either be stored one tune per le with a name that reects the contents, e.g. the tune Paddy ORafferty in the le PaddyORafferty.abc, or grouped together in les according to some common theme, e.g. Reels.abc

contains Irish reels and English.abc has English tunes of all types. If the tunes are grouped then an index is useful and indeed indexing facilities are provided here (see the document index.tex). The example les, in particular English.abc, demonstrate typical le structures. Each tune consists of a header and a body. The header, which is composed of information elds, should start with an X (reference number) eld followed by a T (title) eld and nish with a K (key) eld. The body of the tune in abc notation should follow immediately after. Tunes are separated by blank lines.

2.1 Information elds

The information elds are used to notate things such as composer, meter, etc. ... in fact anything that isnt music. Most of the information elds are for use within a tune header but in addition some may be used in the tune body, or elsewhere in the tune le. Those which are allowed elsewhere can be used to set up a default for the whole or part of a le. For example, in exactly the same way that tunebooks are organised, a le might start with M:6/8 and R:Jigs, followed by some jigs, followed by M:4/4 and R:Reels, followed by some reels. Tunes within each section then inherit the M: and R: elds automatically, although they can be overridden inside a tune header. Finally note that any line beginning with a letter in the range A-Z and immediately followed by a : is interpreted as a eld (so that line like E:|, which could be regarded as an E followed by a right repeat symbol, will cause an error). By far the best way to nd out how to use the elds is to look at the example les (in particular English.abc) and try out some examples. Thus rather than describing them in detail, they are summarised in the following table. The second, third and fourth columns specify respectively how the eld should be used in the header and whether it may used in tune body or elsewhere in the le. Certain elds do not affect the typeset music but are there for other reasons, and the fth column reects this; index elds only affect the index (see index.tex) while archive elds do not affect the output at all, but are just provided to put in information that one might nd in, say, a conventional tunebook. Field name A:area B:book C:composer D:discography E:elemskip F:file name G:group H:history I:information K:key L:default note length M:meter N:notes O:origin P:parts Q:tempo R:rhythm S:source T:title W:words X:reference number Z:transcription note Can be used in: header tune elsewhere yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes last yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes second yes yes rst yes Used by archive archive Examples and notes A:Donegal, A:Bampton B:ONeills C:Trad. D:Chieftains IV see x2.3.3 see index.tex G:flute H:This tune is said to ... see the playabc user manual K:G, K:Dm, K:AMix L:1/4, L:1/8 M:3/4, M:4/4 N:see also ONeills - 234 O:I, O:Irish, O:English P:ABAC, P:A, P:B Q:200, Q:C2=200 R:R, R:reel S:collected in Brittany T:Paddy ORafferty W:Hey, the dusty miller X:1, X:2 Z:transcribed from photocopy

archive archive playabc

index

index

Some additional notes on certain of the elds: T tune title. Some tunes have more than one title and so this eld can be used more than once per tune the rst time will generate the title whilst subsequent usage will generate the alternatives in small print. The normal TEX accents (such as in caf\e for producing caf e or in makazi\u ce for producing makazi ce) can be used but will be stripped out of the index. The T: eld can also be used within a tune to name parts of a tune in this case it 2

should come before any key or meter changes. K key; the key signature should be specied with a capital letter which may be followed by a # or b for sharp or at respectively. In addition, different scales or modes can be specied and, for example, K:F lydian, K:C, K:C major, K:C ionian, K:G mixolydian, K:D dorian, K:A minor, K:Am, K:A aeolian, K:E phrygian and K:B locrian would all produce a staff with no sharps or ats. The spaces can be left out, capitalisation is ignored for the modes and in fact only the rst three letters of each mode are parsed so that, for example, K:F# mixolydian is the same as K:F#Mix or even K:F#MIX. There are two additional keys specically for notating highland bagpipe tunes; K:HP doesnt put a key signature on the music, as is common with many tune books of this music, while K:Hp marks the stave with F], C] and G\. Both force all the beams and staffs to go downwards. Finally, global accidentals can also be set in this eld so that, for example, K:D =c would write the key signature as two sharps (key of D) but then mark every c as natural (which is conceptually the same as D mixolydian). Note that the there can be several global accidentals, separated by spaces and each specied with an accidental, __, _, =, or , (see below) followed by a letter in lower case. Global accidentals are overridden by accidentals attached to notes within the body of the abc tune and are reset by each change of signature. See x2.3 for further notes on their use with ABC2MTEX. L default note length; i.e. L:1/4 quarter note, L:1/8 eighth note, L:1/16 sixteenth, L:1/32 thirty-second. The default note length is also set automatically by the meter eld M: (see x2.2.3). M meter; apart from the normal meters, e.g. M:6/8 or M:4/4, the symbols M:C and M:C| give common time and cut time respectively. P parts; can be used in the header to state the order in which the tune parts are played, i.e. P:ABABCDCD, and then inside the tune to mark each part, i.e. P:A or P:B. Q tempo; can be used to specify the notes per minute, e.g. if the default note length is an eighth note then Q:120 or Q:C=120 is 120 eighth notes per minute. Similarly Q:C3=40 would be 40 dotted quarter notes per minute. An absolute tempo may also be set, e.g. Q:1/8=120 is also 120 eighth notes per minute, irrespective of the default note length. The tempo may also be changed relative to the previous tempo; Q:n=m means that, from now on, a note value of n occupies the same time as a note value of m did previously. Both m and n must be prexed by the pitch value C (which is ignored) to distinguish them from the earlier examples. For example, Q:C4=C6 slows down the tempo by a factor of 3/2; a note of length 4 takes exactly the same time as did a note of length 6 previously. When the meter changes from 4/4 (8 default notes per bar) to 6/8 (6 default notes per bar) a tempo change of Q:C3=C4 is needed to keep the number of bars per minute the same, i.e. to maintain the pulse of the music. G group; to group together tunes for indexing purposes. H history; can be used for multi-line stories/anecdotes, all of which will be ignored until the next eld occurs.

2.2 abc tune notation

2.2.1 Notes The following letters are used to represent notes:

G, A, B, C D E F G A B c d e f g a b c d e f g and by extension, the notes C, D, E, F, a and b are available. Notes can be modied in length (see x2.2.3). 2.2.2 Rests Rests are generated with a z and can be modied in length in exactly the same way as notes can. 3

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! G ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

2.2.3 Note lengths NB Throughout this document note lengths are referred as sixteenth, eighth, etc. The commonly used equivalents are sixteenth note = semi-quaver, eighth = quaver, quarter = crotchet and half = minim. Each meter automatically sets a default note length and a single letter in the range A-G, a-g will generate a note of this length. For example, in 3/4 the default note length is an eighth note and so the input DEF represents 3 eighth notes. The default note length can be calculated by computing the meter as a decimal; if it is less than 0.75 the default is a sixteenth note, otherwise it is an eighth note. For example, 2/4 = 0.5, so the default note length is a sixteenth note, while 4/4 = 1.0 or 6/8 = 0.75, so the default is an eighth note. Common time and cut time (M:C and M:C|) have an eighth note as default. Notes of differing lengths can be obtained by simply putting a multiplier after the letter. Thus in 2/4, A or A1 is a sixteenth note, A2 an eighth note, A3 a dotted eighth note, A4 a quarter note, A6 a dotted quarter note, A7 a double dotted quarter note, A8 a half note, A12 a dotted half note, A14 a double dotted half note, A15 a triple dotted half note and so on, whilst in 3/4, A is an eighth note, A2 a quarter note, A3 a dotted quarter note, A4 a half note, ... To get shorter notes, either divide them e.g. in 3/4, A/2 is a sixteenth note, A/4 is a thirty-second note or change the default note length with the L: eld. Alternatively, if the music has a broken rhythm, e.g. dotted eighth note/sixteenth note pairs, use broken rhythm markers (see x2.2.4). Note that A/ is shorthand for A/2. 2.2.4 Broken rhythms A common occurrence in traditional music is the use of a dotted or broken rhythm. For example, hornpipes, strathspeys and certain morris jigs all have dotted eighth notes followed by sixteenth notes as well as vice-versa in the case of strathspeys. To support this abc notation uses a > to mean the previous note is dotted, the next note halved and < to mean the previous note is halved, the next dotted. Thus the following lines all mean the same thing (the third version is recommended): L:1/16 a3b cd3 a2b2c2d2 L:1/8 a3/2b/2 c/2d3/2 abcd L:1/8 a>b c<d abcd As a logical extension, >> means that the rst note is double dotted and the second quartered and >>> means that the rst note is triple dotted and the length of the second divided by eight. Similarly for << and <<<. 2.2.5 Duplets, triplets, quadruplets, etc. These can be simply coded with the notation (2ab for a duplet, (3abc for a triplet or (4abcd for a quadruplet, etc., up to (9. The musical meanings are: (2 (3 (4 (5 (6 (7 (8 (9 2 notes in the time of 3 3 notes in the time of 2 4 notes in the time of 3 5 notes in the time of n 6 notes in the time of 2 7 notes in the time of n 8 notes in the time of 3 9 notes in the time of n

If the time signature is compound (3/8, 6/8, 9/8, 3/4, etc.) then n is three, otherwise n is two. More general tuplets can be specied using the syntax (p:q:r which means put p notes into the time of q for the next r notes. If q is not given, it defaults as above. If r is not given, it defaults to p. For example, (3:2:2 is equivalent to 4

(3::2 and (3:2:3 is equivalent to (3:2 , (3 or even (3:: . This can be useful to include notes of different lengths within a tuplet, for example (3:2:2G4c2 or (3:2:4G2A2Bc and also describes more precisely how the simple syntax works in cases like (3D2E2F2 or even (3D3EF2. The number written over the tuplet is p. 2.2.6 Beams To group notes together under one beam they should be grouped together without spaces. Thus in 2/4, A2BC will produce an eighth note followed by two sixteenth notes under one beam whilst A2 B C will produce the same notes separated. The beam slopes and the choice of upper or lower staffs are generated automatically. 2.2.7 Repeat/bar symbols Bar line symbols are generated as follows: | |] || [| :| |: :: Viz: bar line thin-thick double bar line thin-thin double bar line thick-thin double bar line left repeat right repeat left-right repeat

~ ~

2.2.8 First & second repeats First and second repeats can be generated with the symbols [1 and [2, e.g. faf gfe|[1 dfe dBA:|[2 d2e dcB|]. When adjacent to bar lines, these can be shortened to |1 and :|2, but with regard to spaces | [1 is legal, | 1 is not. 2.2.9 Accidentals The symbols = and _ are used (before a note) to generate respectively a sharp, natural or at. Double sharps and ats are available with and __ respectively. 2.2.10 Changing key, meter, and default note length mid-tune To change key, meter, or default note length, simply put in a new line with a K: M: or L: eld, e.g. ed|cecA B2ed|cAcA E2ed|cecA B2ed|c2A2 A2:| K:G AB|cdec BcdB|ABAF GFE2|cdec BcdB|c2A2 A2:| To do this without generating a new line of music, put a \ at the end of the rst line, i.e. E2E EFE|E2E EFG|\ M:9/8 A2G F2E D2|]

2.2.11 Ties and slurs You can tie two notes together either across or within a bar with a - symbol, e.g. abc-|cba or abc-cba. More general slurs can be put in with () symbols. Thus (DEFG) puts a slur over the four notes. Spaces within a slur are OK, e.g. (D E F G), but the open bracket should come immediately before a note (and its accents/accidentals, etc.) and the close bracket should come immediately after a note (and its octave marker or length). Thus (=b c2) is OK but ( =b c2 ) is not. The old notation, e.g. sDEFsG, can still be used by setting a user switch see x2.3.1.

2.2.12 Gracings Grace notes can be written by enclosing them in curly braces, {}. For example, a taorluath on the Highland pipes would be written {GdGe}. The tune Athol Brose (in the le Strspys.abc) has an example of complex Highland pipe gracing in all its glory. Grace notes have no time value and so expressions such as {a2} or {a>b} are not legal. Alternatively, the tilde symbol represents the general gracing of a note which, in the context of traditional music, can mean different things for different instruments, for example a roll, cran or staccato triplet 2.2.13 Accents Staccato marks (a small dot above or below the note head) can be generated by a dot before the note, i.e. a staccato triplet is written as (3.a.b.c For ddlers, the letters u & v can be used to denote up-bow & down-bow, e.g. vAuBvA 2.2.14 Chords & unisons Chords (i.e. more than one note head on a single stem) can be coded with [] symbols around the notes, e.g. [CEGc] produces the chord of C major. They can be grouped in beams, e.g. [d2f2][ce][df] but there should be no spaces within a chord. See the tune Kitchen Girl in the le Reels.abc for a simple example. If the chord contains two notes both of the same length and pitch, such as [DD], then it is a unison (e.g. a note played on two strings of a violin simultaneously) and is shown as note-head with both upward and downward stems. The old notation, e.g. +CEGc+, can still be used by setting a user switch see x2.3.1.

2.2.15 Guitar chords Guitar chords can be put in under the melody line by enclosing the chord in inverted commas, e.g. "Am7"A2D2 . See the tune William and Nancy in English.abc for an example. 2.2.16 Order of symbols The order of symbols for one note is <guitar chords>, <accents> (e.g. roll, staccato marker or up/downbow), <accidental>, <note>, <octave>, <note length>, i.e. c3 or even "Gm7"v.=G,2 Tie symbols, -, should come immediately after a note group but may be followed by a space, i.e. =G,2- . Open and close chord symbols, [], should enclose entire note sequences (except for guitar chords), i.e. "C"[CEGc] or "Gm7"[.=G,c] and open and close slur symbols, (), should do likewise, i.e. "Gm7"(v.=G,2c2) 2.2.17 Comments A % symbol will cause the remainder of any input line to be ignored. The le English.abc contains plenty of examples.

2.2.18 New notation The letters H-Z can be used to dene your own new notation within a tune. Currently the way they are implemented (if at all) is extremely package dependent and so users are advised not to rely too heavily on them to include new features. Instead, if there is a feature or symbol that you need and which is not available it is better to press for it to be included as a part of the language. See x2.3.2 for how to use these symbols with ABC2MTEX. 2.2.19 Line breaking & justication Generally one line of abc notation will produce one line of music, although if the music is too long it will overow onto the next line. This can look very effective, but it can also completely ruin ties across bar lines, for example. You can counteract this by changing either the note spacing with the E: eld (although currently this is package dependent) or break the line of abc notation. If, however, you wish to use two lines of input to generate one line of music (see, for example, the Untitled Reel in Reels.abc) then simply put a \ at the end of the rst line. This is also useful for changing meter or key in the middle of a line of music. With most packages lines of music are right-justied. However, where this is not the case (e.g. when using MusicTEX), a * at the end of each line of abc notation will force a right-justied line-break.

2.3 ABC2MTEX extensions

The global accidentals which can be specied in the K: eld are somewhat basic in their application. Firstly every specied note is marked with an accidental, rather than just the rst of that note in each bar. Secondly, although global accidentals are overwritten by an accidental attached to a note this isnt done particularly intelligently. For example, for the key specication K:G =f every f is marked with a natural and if it was required to override one of these with a sharp, i.e. a f within the abc of the tune, it would make sense for the output to have nothing by that f since the key signature automatically sharpens every f. However, in the current implementation, a sharp will appear. By default, when using MusicTEX, lines of music are left-justied but not right-justied. There are two ways to overcome this; either with a * at the end of each line of abc notation as described above (x2.2.19) or by using the setting justify as described in x2.3.1. Currently slurs and ties are only available with MusiXTEX (see x4.1). The code which handles chords, e.g. [ac], is a bit sensitive and you may need to ddle around a bit with the order of the notes in the chord to get it looking right. Within guitar chords ABC2MTEX only processes the rst letter (and the second if it is a # or a b) of the character string in between the inverted commas and submits the rest to TEX as is. This means that in chords such as "F#m" or "BbMaj7" the sharp and at symbols will be handled correctly and will even come out transposed correctly. Also, for chords with more than one or two letters, you may need to add some extra spacing (see x2.3.4) in the tune to prevent two chords from overlapping. Finally, by default the letters appear below the staff; this can be changed with the user settings, x2.3.1. 2.3.1 User settings Various user dened switches can be set in the le settings to customise the behaviour of the output. To set a switch just put the name of the switch on a line in settings. The switches are: justify when using MusicTEX this switch right-justies every line of music. gchords above puts guitar chords above the staff rather than below. autobeam for many common meters, the code can, if required, try to ensure that beams contain the right number of beats. For example, in 6/8 double jigs, each bar normally contains two beams of three eighth notes, or equivalent and so with autobeaming set, the input abcdef will produce exactly the same output as abc def; two beams of 3 eighth notes. By default, i.e. with autobeaming off, the input abcdef produces one beam of 6 eighth notes.

oldrepeats (for backwards compatibility) gives the old output from [1 & [2 for both [1, [2, |1 and :|2. oldchords (for backwards compatibility) forces the code to recognise the old notation ++ for chords as well as the new [] e.g. +CEGc+ will give the same output as [CEGc]. oldslurs (for backwards compatibility) forces the code to recognise the old notation s.s for slurs as well as the new (.) e.g. sDEFsG will give the same output as (DEFG). 2.3.2 New notation The new notation letters, H-Z, have been provided because of demand by users to add extra symbols into the manuscript and each letter can generate 3 different commands, depending on how it is used. In the simplest form, the input S will produce a \userS in the output; \userS should then be dened by the user either in header.tex or even in the abc le and could, say, be used to produce a horizontal space by dening \def\userS{\qsk}. In a similar manner, if using MusiXTEX, you could mark bars as the nal repeats (in the same way as |1 marks them as rst repeats) by using L| and dening \def\userL{\setvolta{last time}}. More complicated use occurs when the input letter is combined with a note (ABCDEFGacbdefg). In this case the letter P, say, produces either \userPu{.} or \userPl{.} depending on whether the following note is in an upper or lower beam. The argument {.} is the MusicTEX note pitch. An example use could be to mark a note with some accent, e.g. a V above the note head, and in this case the command would be dened \def\userPl#1{\zcharnote#1{\raise5pt\hbox{$\vee$}}}% N.B. To use a TEX command combined with a note, the command letter must be in the same place as the other note attributes (i.e. after a guitar chord and before an accidental see x2.2.16). Thus, in the input J A or J"Am"A, the J will produce the output \userJ. Also it is possible to have more than one TEX command per note (e.g. HIA will produce two user commands combined with the note. It is, of course, possible to write TEX commands for anything, including sequences of notes, but the author strongly recommends that they are not used for this purpose and, in general, used sparingly. The reasons for this are twofold; rstly one of the strengths of abc notation is that it can be fairly easily understood by humans this may not be the case if it is peppered with extra letters. Secondly, the user commands will be ignored by other packages such as playabc, so any notes or other musical marks normally understood by playabc will be present in the printed output but missing from the sound output. 2.3.3 Internote spacings The internote spacing is set by the information eld E. As the format is currently set up, E:8 & E:7 can be used to squeeze long tunes up a bit and E:10 and above to stretch short tunes. Using E:6 really looks a bit too cramped. 2.3.4 TEX input If there is a line in a tune le beginning with a \, it is put directly into the output le (music.tex). For example, you can use \qsk to get small horizontal space within a tune and \bigskip or \medskip to get vertical space. This is acceptable input anywhere except within tune headers.

2.4 Examples
Examples are provided for most of the possibilities above. They can be found in:

Example Information elds Broken Rhythm Triplets First & Second Repeats Line Breaking Changing key mid-tune Changing meter mid-tune Changing default note length mid-tune Gracings Chords Guitar Chords Internote spacings

File & Number English:3 Strspys:1 Strspys:1 Jigs:1 English:1 Reels:1 English:2 English:3 Strspys:2 Reels:2 English:3 Strspys:2

Section 2.1 2.2.4 2.2.5 2.2.8 2.2.19 2.2.10 2.2.10 2.2.10 2.2.12 2.2.14 2.2.15 2.3.3

3 Running abc2mtex
Run the program with the command abc2mtex. You will be prompted to choose tunes with the line select tunes: Typically you might respond with English:1-3,5,9- which will select tunes numbered 1, 2, 3, 5 and 9 onwards from the le English. Just entering English or English:- will select all the all the tunes from English. Note that there should be no spaces anywhere in this input. Alternatively, all the input can go in the command line, e.g. abc2mtex English:1-3,5,9- Jigs:-10 and the program will even read from the standard input, e.g. abc2mtex -, which is useful to pipe in the results of a search (see index.tex). Also, if the lename extension is .abc then you dont need to type that in e.g. the input Reels:1-10 will open the le Reels.abc (if the le Reels doesnt exist). When the program has nished formatting the chosen tunes (a matter of seconds) it will prompt you again with a select tunes. To quit the program simply hit return (or q or quit) at this prompt. Finally, if you want to keep processing the same tunes over and over again you can store a list of their les and reference numbers in another le and run the code with this le as an input (to save typing it in again). There is an example in the following section.

3.1 TEX input

If at the prompt select tunes: you enter a line beginning with a \, it is put directly into the output le (music.tex). This is a good way of putting things like page headings directly into the document, e.g. something like \headline{ENGLISH TUNES \hfil \folio} will generate a header and page number for each page. This sort of input can then be stored in a le to save the format of particular documents. For example, you could store \headline{FLUTE MUSIC \hfil \folio} \centerline{REELS} Reels:1-9 \vfill\eject \centerline{JIGS} Jigs:1-4 9

in a le and then run abc2mtex < file Note that the \vfill\eject causes a page break and the \folio generates page numbers.

3.2 Command line options

By default, abc2mtex outputs MusicTEX to the le music.tex but this can be changed with the use of command line options. Thus abc2mtex -i creates an index of all the les in the le index and can even include the rst two bars of each tune in abc notation (see index.tex), while abc2mtex -x produces MusiXTEX output in music.tex (see x4.1). The option -t will transpose some or all of the tunes, x3.3. The output le can be set with the -o option, e.g. abc2mtex -o Jigs.tex Jigs.abc. It also possible to use combinations of options, e.g. abc2mtex -x -t to produce transposed MusiXTEX output, but they must all come before the rst input lename.

3.3 Transposing tunes

If you select the option -t, you will be prompted at every tune by Transpose? You should enter here the change in the number of sharps and ats you wish to make. For example, if the tune is in G (1 sharp) and you wish to transpose it up to A (3 sharps) you would enter +2 or just 2. Flats are counted negatively so that to transpose from G to F (1 at or ?1) you would enter -2. If you have chosen to transpose the tune, i.e. entered anything other than 0 you will then be prompted by Note offset? which is just the number of line and spaces that each note must move. Thus going from G to A is just moving every note up one and so you would enter +1 or 1 whilst G to F would require -1. Note that something like changing from E (3 ats) to E (4 sharps) has note offset 0. Alternatively, at the Transpose? prompt, you can enter the interval, e.g. 5 means transpose up a fth. Possible intervals are shown in the table below. input 2 5 _4 8 _8 4 _5 _2 transposition up tone up fth down fourth up octave down octave up fourth down fth down tone change in ]= s note offset

+2 +1 +1 0 0 ?1 ?1 ?2

+1 +4 ?3 +7 ?7 +3 ?4 ?1

As well as generating transposed MusicTEX output in the le music.tex, the -t option also puts transposed abc notation in the le transpose.abc. This is useful if you want to save the transposed version and abc2mtex can be run on this le. Finally to transpose all of the selected input tunes the transposition and note offset can be entered on the command line with abc2mtex -t:<transpose>:<note offset> or abc2mtex -t:<interval>. For example, to transpose everything down a fourth, use abc2mtex -t: 4 or abc2mtex -t:1:-3

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3.4 Running MusicTEX

Once you have created music.tex, simply run tex music.tex. This will produce a le music.dvi which can be viewed (e.g. with xdvi) or converted into postscript (e.g. with dvips). The viewing/printing will depend on your system.

3.5 Customising the output

The le header.tex contains most of the parameters which decide the way the printed music looks. If you want to customise the music output this is the rst place you should start. Brief instructions are contained in this le and an example of how it could be set up contained in header1.tex. To try this out copy header.tex to somewhere safe and then copy header1.tex to header.tex. Experiment!

3.6 Using make

If you are on a system that has the make command there are a number of shortcuts available. For example, entering make English.ps will run abc2mtex, TEX and dvips on English.abc and put the results in English.ps (though you may need to modify the Makele to suit your system). To tidy up at the end of a session, simply type make tidy, although be warned that this will remove the les music.tex, transpose.abc and index.

4 Extensions
4.1 MusiXTEX
MusiXTEX is a recent enhancement to MusicTEX available at various ftp sites (see the README le). Currently it is in beta test phase and there are two versions available; see the le Changes for compatibility of versions. It is a three pass system you run tex music, then musicflx music and then tex music again and this extra processing allows some nice features to be built in such as proper slurs. It also runs considerably faster than MusicTEX. The abc notation isnt affected but the main changes in the output should be that: The music is automatically right-justied. Tuplets will have a slur marker by them and other slurs (see x2.2.11) are now possible. To generate MusiXTEX output simply run abc2mtex with the command line option -x.

4.2 Multi-stave output

A simple amendment has been made to the code to allow the generation of multi-stave music. Specically, the character & is carried straight through to the TEX output and the characters && produce a \enotes\notes pair. Thus the input DEFG & ABcd && A4 & e2 c2| produces:

G S

!!!

! !!

G S !!!!

"

To explain this to those unfamiliar with MusicTEX, the DEFG are put on the lowest stave. The & then tells MusicTEXto move up a stave, where it puts the ABcd. The rst notes of each group are aligned. The && (or a bar line) moves the

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output back down to the lowest stave and resets the alignment, so that in this case, the A4 is on the lower stave, and is aligned with the e2 on the upper stave. The number of staves and whether or not they are bass or treble clefs is specied by a simple amendment to the K: eld. Thus K:G 1&3 means 4 staves with the bottom one in the bass clef; K:G 0&2 means 2 staves both in the treble clef. Notes on the bass clef are automatically shifted down one octave. The i&j part of the K: eld should come after any mode/scale specication and before lists of global accidentals, e.g. K:D aeolian 1&3 f. Note that this is regarded as an essentially unsupported feature put in to take some of the pain out of coding MusicTEX. Several things may not work properly, such as bar counting or slurs & ties (although it would not be too difcult to make them work if there was the demand) and it is likely that, for all but the simplest melodies the raw TEX output will need editing. Also, because abc notation in this form is both difcult to write and read, it is probable that if multi-stave music becomes properly a part of ABC2MTEX it will be in the form already available with playabc (using I:part 1, ..., I:part final).

5 Bugs and features

Error handling is reasonably good; the code wont accept characters it doesnt recognise and it also tries to give helpful error messages. It exits if it nds the unescaped special characters # & in an information eld since TEX will choke on them. They can, however, be used by escaping with a backslash (\) e.g. use \# rather than #. The code will also attempt to check the length of each bar. It ignores leading notes and bars that nish with a repeat or double bar symbol, but for other bars which are too long or too short it gives a warning indicating the bar and line number. The bar numbering is a little quirky; the rst complete bar of a line should be number 1 (so that leading notes are bar number 0). It can correctly handle duplets, triplets and quadruplets but quietly ignores bars with other tuplets.

6 The future
Sometime in the future it is hoped to provide: Alignment of music & lyrics this may be difcult and will have to wait until MusiXTEX has settled down. A proper front end parser (probably using Don Wards lex parser for playabc).

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