GNU LilyPond

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Music expressions

Music in LilyPond is entered as a music expression. Notes, rests, lyric syllables are music expressions, and you can combine music expressions to form new ones, for example by enclosing a list of expressions in \sequential { } or < >. In the following example, a compound expression is formed out of the quarter note c and a quarter note d:

     \sequential { c4 d4 }
     

The two basic compound music expressions are simultaneous and sequential music.

     \sequential { musicexprlist }
     \simultaneous { musicexprlist }
     

For both, there is a shorthand:

     { musicexprlist }
     

for sequential and

     < musicexprlist >
     

for simultaneous music. In principle, the way in which you nest sequential and simultaneous to produce music is not relevant. In the following example, three chords are expressed in two different ways:

     \notes \context Voice {
       <a c'> <b d'> <c' e'>
       < { a b c' } { c' d' e' } >
     }
     

Other compound music expressions include

     \repeat expr
     \transpose pitch expr
     \apply func expr
     \context type = id expr
     \times fraction expr