Re:F7 chord appearing as E#7 when I transpose (Paul Scott)

[Robert Glover]

   I'm the (newbie) person whose post instigated this thread.  I faithfully 
applied the advice given, but alas the result was not satisfactory.  The lead 
sheet is a classic example of the worst possible case:  The "A" section starts 
with I VI  II V.  The "B" section transposes the "A" section into the key of 
III, then transposes the  "A" section into the key of "IV".  That worst 
possible case makes the transposition into keys with four or more sharps look 
terrible because, for example, in the key of "B major "  the "B" section has 
chord "E#m7".  While a purist might argue that is the correct representation, 
it is completely unacceptable to give a lead sheet with that chord to a member 
of a jazz group because instant, fast sight reading is required in jazz. It 
must be notated as Fm7.
   When I used the clever Scheme technique recommended, it could not handle 
this worst possible case song.  Specifically, in the part of the "B" section 
that is the "A" section transposed into the key of III, it turned the  "E#m7" 
into an "F#6/sus#2" and it changed an "A#7" into a "A#7bb6/susb4".  However in 
the part of the "B" section where it transposed the "A" section into the key of 
IV it did it perfectly, rendering the chords as F7m7 and b7.
   I do appreciate the suggestion I received, but I do not want to leave the 
impression it worked for me because clearly my needs have not been filled here.
   To paraphrase my jazz piano teacher,  what is ultimately needed here is a 
"jazz mode" where it can be specified as an inviolable rule that an E# chord is 
always rendered as an F chord, a B# chord is always rendered as a "C" chord. My 
jazz teacher was uncertain about whether a Cb chord should always be rendered 
as a "B" chord.  He thought about it and finally decided he thought it should 
be always rendered as a "B" chord.  This is a need for jazz musicians, not for 
classical musicians.
   Anyway, thank you very much for the timely suggestion.  I do appreciate it 
even though so far it's not working for me.

>> Since the same request has appeared for ordinary notes, some clever Scheme
>> hackers have
>> made a function that automatically gets rid of the extra accidentals by
>> enharmonically rewriting the
>> music.

>Dumb question: are we sure we still do need the ordinary \transpose?

>If not, may be we could make it "smarter" by implementing the snippet
>as a default code... (possibly keeping the current function as an
>\old-transpose command for backwards compatibility?)

>Or is it likely to break many many many things?

>Cheers,
>Valentin