The name of the game
Why did we call it LilyPond?Han-Wen: I started Lily (our affectionate name for LilyPond) in 1996. Back then, I was in an amateur symphony orchestra together with Jan. I had a crush on this magnificent girl in the orchestra: her name was Suzanne, she played both the flute and the cello, and (of course) I thought she was very pretty.
At the time, Jan was dating Roos (Dutch for ‘Rose’ – she also played the cello). I also knew about a package Rosegarden (a GUI MIDI sequencer and notation editor). When I found out that ‘Susan’ is Hebrew for ‘lily’, I decided that calling the package ‘LilyPond’ would match the nomenclature of the rest of my life perfectly.
Some things don't last – the two girls, the cellos and the orchestra, all have disappeared from our lives. LilyPond however, has survived. It is a mature package with a healthy user-base and good prospects. Best of all is, that we still have a good time hacking on it
Incidentally, the Rosegarden package is still alive. Among others, it has support for LilyPond export.
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