To raise a note by an octave, add a high quote '
(apostrophe) to
the note name, to lower a note one octave, add a “low quote” ,
(a comma). Middle C is c'
c'4 c'' c''' \clef bass c c,
An example of the use of quotes is in the following Mozart fragment
\key a \major \time 6/8 cis''8. d''16 cis''8 e''4 e''8 b'8. cis''16 b'8 d''4 d''8
This example shows that music in a high register needs lots of quotes.
This makes the input less readable, and it is a source of errors. The
solution is to use “relative octave” mode. In practice, this is the
most convenient way to copy existing music. To use relative mode, add
\relative
before the piece of music. You must also give a note
from which relative starts, in this case c''
. If you do not
use octavation quotes (i.e. do not add '
or ,
after a
note), relative mode chooses the note that is closest to the previous
one. For example, c f
goes up while c g
goes down
\relative c'' { c f c g c }
Since most music has small intervals, pieces can be written almost without octavation quotes in relative mode. The previous example is entered as
\relative c'' { \key a \major \time 6/8 cis8. d16 cis8 e4 e8 b8. cis16 b8 d4 d8 }
Larger intervals are made by adding octavation quotes.
\relative c'' { c f, f c' c g' c, }
In \relative
mode, quotes or commas no longer determine the
absolute height of a note. Rather, the height of a note is relative to
the previous one, and changing the octave of a single note shifts all
following notes an octave up or down.
For more information on Relative octaves see Relative octaves and Octave check.
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This page is for LilyPond-2.2.6 (stable-branch). |