Re: ottava bassa

[Keith OHara]

Neil Puttock <n.puttock <at> gmail.com> writes:
> 
> On 11 January 2011 10:45,  <ljc <at> internet.com.uy> wrote:
> > all of them involve somehow "cheating" the pitches, am i right?. 
> > in other words, "what you see is not what you get", meaning that the midi
> > file would have the notes at the wrong octave. 

Yes, LilyPond tries to make what you see be what you get, but under a simple 
rule that 8va affects the whole staff, so most of us tried to trick her.  

I very much like Neil's approach, because he tells LilyPond the more 
sophisticated rule we really use in this case:

%  Start a bracket without touching middle C
  \once \override Staff.OttavaBracket #'direction = #DOWN
  \set Staff.ottavation = #"8vb"  

%  Place middle C appropriately for 8vb, for this Voice only
  \set Voice.middleCPosition = #13  

    %{ music written at correct pitch %}

  \unset Voice.middleCPosition % so this Voice follows the Staff in future
  \ottava #0

Much better than lying; when I lie I risk fooling myself.