Re: Issue 3720: Built-in templates for SATB vocal scores (issue 41990043)

[dschudy]

Trevor Daniels wrote:
> The point of this patch is to make LilyPond more approachable by
> facilitating the production of quite complex vocal scores by typing
> _just_ the music, which _is_ quite easy to explain, comprehend and
> do.

OK, it's because the structure is much harder to understand than the
notation for notes.

Here are some ways it could be made easier to use:
 * The need for separate *-init.ily files can be eliminated by using
defined? to set the defaults when using the variables.
 * The filenames should be all lowercase, like all of the other standard
include files, so they'll work on case-sensitive filesystems when users
type them in lowercase (as I did on the first try).
 * All the other standard include files use .ly, not .ily. Do we really
want to change this in a user-visible place?
 * The *Music variables are the most important ones. Should they have
shorter names, like Soprano instead of SopranoMusic?
 * Instrument name variables are easier to set if there's one per voice,
so users don't have to use \markup.
 * Shouldn't "Ladies" be "Women", to be consistent with "Men"?
 * Short names can default to the first character of the long name.
 * Shouldn't \lyricsto be implied?
 * S-A-T-B and SA-TB could be one file, with the number of staves
controlled by defining TwoVoicesPerStaff = ##t.
 * Requiring the \include to be at the end is still odd.

Questions of output:
 * Should instrumentName be off by default, since in simple SATB scores
it's obvious which part is which?
 * Choir aahs and oohs don't sound very good on most MIDI players —
they're intended for pads, so they usually have very slow attacks,
making it hard to hear rhythm. Perhaps clarinet would be better, since
it has faster attacks and sounds a little like voice?

Some features seem unnecessary:
 * The \paper block changes a bunch of defaults, but AFAICT the defaults
are fine (and the changes). Why bother?
 * Small caps also seems unrelated to SATB.
 * TopMarkup does nothing that can't be done by a top-level \markup.

Here's a version with many of these changes:
http://codereview.appspot.com/38720045

https://codereview.appspot.com/41990043/