17.3.1 Mensural contexts

The predefined MensuralVoice and MensuralStaff contexts can be used to engrave a piece in mensural style. These contexts initialize all relevant context properties and grob properties to proper values, so you can immediately go ahead entering the chant, as the following excerpt demonstrates:

\score {
  <<
    \new MensuralVoice = "discantus" \relative {
      \hide Score.BarNumber {
        c''1\melisma bes a g\melismaEnd
        f\breve
        \[ f1\melisma a c\breve d\melismaEnd \]
        c\longa
        c\breve\melisma a1 g1\melismaEnd
        fis\longa^\signumcongruentiae
      }
    }
    \new Lyrics \lyricsto "discantus" {
      San -- ctus, San -- ctus, San -- ctus
    }
  >>
}

See also

Music Glossary: mensural notation.

17.3.2 Mensural clefs

Mensural clefs are supported using the \clef command. Some of the clefs use the same glyph, but differ only with respect to the line they are printed on. In such cases, a trailing number in the name is used to enumerate these clefs, numbered from the lowest to the highest line.

\new MensuralStaff {
  \clef "mensural-c1" c'1
}

\new MensuralStaff {
  \override NoteHead.style = #'blackmensural
  \clef "blackmensural-c2" c'1
}

\new MensuralStaff {
  \override NoteHead.style = #'neomensural
  \clef "neomensural-c3" c'1
}

\new PetrucciStaff {
  \clef "petrucci-c4" c'1
}

It is possible to manually force a clef glyph to be typeset on an arbitrary line, see Clef. For the complete range of possible clefs, see Clef styles.

See also

Music Glossary: mensural notation, clef.

Notation Reference: Gregorian clefs, Clef.

Installed Files: scm/parser-clef.scm.

Snippets: Pitches.

Internals Reference: Clef_engraver, Clef, ClefModifier, clef-interface.

Known issues and warnings

The Mensural g clef is mapped to the Petrucci g clef.

17.3.3 Mensural time signatures

There is limited support for mensuration signs (which are similar to but not exactly the same as time signatures). The glyphs are hard-wired to particular time fractions. In other words, to get a particular mensuration sign with the \time n/m command, n and m have to be chosen according to the following table.

Use the style property of grob TimeSignature to select ancient time signatures. Supported styles are neomensural and mensural. The above table uses the neomensural style. The following examples show the differences in style:

See Time signature for a general introduction to the use of time signatures.

See also

Music Glossary: mensural notation.

Notation Reference: Time signature.

Known issues and warnings

Ratios of note durations cannot change with the time signature, as those are not constant. For example, the ratio of 1 breve = 3 semibreves (tempus perfectum) can be made by hand, by setting

breveTP = #(ly:make-duration -1 0 3/2)
…
{ c\breveTP f1 }

This sets breveTP to 3/2 times 2 = 3 times a whole note.

The mensural68alt and neomensural68alt symbols (alternate symbols for 6/8) are not addressable with \time. Use \markup {\musicglyph "timesig.mensural68alt" } instead.

17.3.4 Mensural note heads

For ancient notation, a note head style other than the default style may be chosen. This is accomplished by setting the style property of the NoteHead object to baroque, neomensural, mensural, petrucci, blackpetrucci or semipetrucci.

The baroque style differs from the default style by:

• Providing a maxima note head, and
• Using a square shape for \breve note heads.

The neomensural, mensural, and petrucci styles differ from the baroque style by:

• Using rhomboidal heads for semibreves and all smaller durations, and
• Centering the stems on the note heads.

The blackpetrucci style produces note heads usable in black mensural notation or coloratio sections in white mensural notation. Because note head style does not influence flag count, in this style a semiminima should be notated as a8*2, not a4, otherwise it will look like a minima. The multiplier can be different if coloratio is used, e.g., to notate triplets.

Use semipetrucci style to draw half-colored note heads (breves, longas and maximas).

The following example demonstrates the petrucci style:

\compressEmptyMeasures
\autoBeamOff
\override NoteHead.style = #'petrucci
a'\maxima a'\longa a'\breve a'1 a'2 a'4 a'8 a'16 a'
\override NoteHead.style = #'semipetrucci
a'\breve*5/6
\override NoteHead.style = #'blackpetrucci
a'8*4/3 a'
\override NoteHead.style = #'petrucci
a'\longa

Note head styles gives an overview of all available note head styles.

See also

Music Glossary: mensural notation, note head.

Notation Reference: Note head styles.

17.3.5 Mensural flags

Use the style property of grob Flag to select ancient flags. Besides the default flag style, only the mensural style is supported.

\relative c' {
  \override Flag.style = #'mensural
  \override Stem.thickness = 1.0
  \override NoteHead.style = #'mensural
  \autoBeamOff
  c8 d e f c16 d e f c32 d e f s8
  c'8 d e f c16 d e f c32 d e f
}

Note that the innermost flare of each mensural flag is vertically aligned with a staff line.

There is no particular flag style for neo-mensural or Petrucci notation. There are no flags in Gregorian chant notation.

See also

Music Glossary: mensural notation, flag.

Known issues and warnings

Vertically aligning each flag with a staff line assumes that stems always end either exactly on or exactly in the middle of two staff lines. This may not always be true when using advanced layout features of classical notation (which however are typically out of scope for mensural notation).

17.3.6 Mensural rests

Use the style property of grob Rest to select ancient rests. Supported ancient styles are neomensural, and mensural.

The following example demonstrates these styles:

\compressEmptyMeasures
\override Rest.style = #'mensural
r\longa^"mensural" r\breve r1 r2 r4 r8 r16 s \break
\override Rest.style = #'neomensural
r\longa^"neomensural" r\breve r1 r2 r4 r8 r16

There are no 32nd and 64th rests specifically for the mensural or neo-mensural styles. Rests from the default style are used.

See also

Music Glossary: mensural notation.

Notation Reference: Rests.

Snippets: Ancient notation.

Known issues and warnings

The glyph for the maxima rest in mensural style is actually a perfect longa rest; use two (or three) longa rests to print a maxima rest. Longa rests are not grouped automatically, so have to be done manually by using pitched rests.

17.3.7 Mensural accidentals and key signatures

The mensural style provides a sharp and a flat sign different from the default style. Mensural notation rarely used a natural sign: instead the appropriate sharp or flat is used. For example, a B natural in the key of F major would be indicated with a sharp. However, if specifically called for, the natural sign is taken from the vaticana style.

The way to use this style is covered in Alternate accidental glyphs. It is the default in the MensuralStaff context.

See also

Music Glossary: mensural notation, Pitch names, accidental, key signature.

Notation Reference: Pitches, Accidentals, Automatic accidentals, Alternate accidental glyphs, Accidental glyph sets, Key signature.

Internals Reference: KeySignature.

17.3.8 Annotational accidentals (musica ficta)

In European music from before about 1600, singers were expected to chromatically alter notes at their own initiative according to certain rules. This is called musica ficta. In modern transcriptions, these accidentals are usually printed over the note.

Support for such suggested accidentals is included, and can be switched on by setting suggestAccidentals to #t.

\relative {
  fis' gis
  \set suggestAccidentals = ##t
  ais bis
}

This will treat every subsequent accidental as musica ficta until it is unset with \set suggestAccidentals = ##f. A more practical way is to use \once \set suggestAccidentals = ##t, which can even be defined as a convenient shorthand:

ficta = { \once \set suggestAccidentals = ##t }
\score { \relative
  \new MensuralVoice  {
    \once \set suggestAccidentals = ##t
    bes'4 a2 g2 \ficta fis8 \ficta e! fis2 g1
  }
}

See also

Internals Reference: Accidental_engraver, AccidentalSuggestion.

17.3.9 White mensural ligatures

There is limited support for white mensural ligatures.

To engrave white mensural ligatures, replace the Ligature_bracket_engraver with the Mensural_ligature_engraver in the Voice context’s layout block:

\layout {
  \context {
    \Voice
    \remove Ligature_bracket_engraver
    \consists Mensural_ligature_engraver
  }
}

In the following, we use a PetrucciStaff context, which does this replacement, among other settings, approximating the mensural typesetting of Ottaviano Petrucci’s Harmonices Musices Odhecaton (Venice, 1501). The accompanying voice context is called PetrucciVoice.

There is no additional input language to describe the shape of a white mensural ligature; instead, the shape is determined solely from the pitches and durations of the enclosed notes. While this approach may take a new user a while to get accustomed to, it has the great advantage that the full musical information of the ligature is known internally. This is not only required for correct MIDI output, but also allows for automatic transcription of the ligatures.

At certain places two consecutive notes can be represented either as two squares or as an oblique parallelogram (a flexa shape). In such cases the default is the two squares, but a flexa can be required by setting the ligature-flexa property of the second note head. The width of a flexa can be set by the note head property flexa-width.

For example,

\new PetrucciStaff \relative {
  \[ c''\maxima g \]
  \[ d'\longa
     \tweak ligature-flexa ##t
     \tweak flexa-width #3.2 c\breve f e d \]
  \[ c\maxima d\longa \]
  \[ e1 a, g\breve \]
}

Without replacing Ligature_bracket_engraver with Mensural_ligature_engraver, the same music looks as follows:

There are also cases where a stem is not required to unambiguously encode the note length, but is also not forbidden:

• an initial breve (with a lower pitch than the next note) may or may not have a downward left stem;
• a maxima may or may not have a downward right stem;
• a final longa (with a lower pitch than the previous note) may or may not have a right stem.

Here is an example that demonstrates this tweaking.

\new PetrucciStaff \relative {
  \clef "petrucci-c4"
  \[ \tweak left-down-stem ##t a\breve b
     \tweak right-down-stem ##t g\longa \]
  \[ \tweak right-down-stem ##t b\maxima
     \tweak right-up-stem ##t g\longa \]
}

Without tweaking the same ligatures look as follows.

\new PetrucciStaff \relative {
  \clef "petrucci-c4"
  \[ a\breve b g\longa \]
  \[ b\maxima g\longa \]
}

See also

Music Glossary: ligature.

Notation Reference: Gregorian square neume ligatures, Ligatures.

Known issues and warnings

Horizontal spacing of ligatures may be poor.

Accidentals may collide with previous notes.