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16 This section introduces the Mup language, giving some simple examples to
17 give you the flavor of a Mup input file.
18 Subsequent sections will go into greater detail.
24 Music is described one measure at a time. Each note is specified by its pitch
25 value, "a" to "g." As an example, the first measure of "Three Blind
26 Mice" can be described like this:
30 <IMG SRC="mugex2.gif" ALT="Picture of Mup output"><BR>
31 The "1:" at the beginning of the line tells Mup that we are describing
32 the notes on staff number 1. In this very simple example, we only have one
33 staff, but later we'll do songs with more than one.
34 Each staff of each measure is normally put on a separate line.
37 The first three notes of "Three Blind Mice" are E, D, and C. For Mup
38 input, these pitches are given in lower case to avoid having to use the shift
39 key. No octave information was specified in this simple example, so Mup
40 would use its default, which in this case would be the octave beginning
44 The first two notes are quarter notes, and the last note is a half
45 note. Time values of notes are given as shown in the example. A quarter
46 note is marked by a 4, a half note by 2, a sixteenth note by a 16, etc.
49 A semicolon is used to separate chords. In this simple example, each chord
50 has only a single note in it, but it is possible to have lots of notes in one
51 <A HREF="chordinp.html">chord.</A>
54 At the end of each measure, we have to tell Mup what kind of
55 <A HREF="bars.html">bar line</A>
56 to draw. The standard bar line is just called "bar." So a complete
57 description of the first measure would be:
64 To save typing, Mup allows a lot of shortcuts. One such shortcut is that
65 it assumes that unless you tell it otherwise, each note in the measure is
66 like the note before. You can leave out the second 4, because if you
67 don't specify a time value, Mup will assume the note is the same length
71 The same sort of idea works with pitches. The third measure of "Three Blind
72 Mice" could be stated like this:
77 <IMG SRC="mugex3.gif" ALT="Picture of Mup output"><BR>
78 The third note has no information given at all in this example--there is
79 only a semicolon. In this case, Mup will get both pitch and time value from
80 the previous note, so the actual third note in this measure would be an
81 eighth note with pitch F.
84 You may have noticed that this example doesn't have spaces between chords.
85 There are only a few places where the Mup language requires you to put spaces.
86 However, you can always put some in other places to make things easier to read.
92 Printed music contains a lot more than just notes and bar lines. Among other
93 things, each staff normally begins with a clef, key signature, and time
94 signature. Mup provides default values for these, which you can then
95 override if you want something different. In the examples so far, we didn't
96 override anything, so Mup would assume its default values, which are
97 treble clef, a key signature with no sharps or flats, and a time signature
102 <A HREF="param.html">list of "parameters" that can be set.</A>
104 and key signature are among them. Parameters can be changed with a line of the
107 <I>parameter_name</I>=<I>value</I>
109 For example, suppose we have a song written in 6/8 time in the key of D major.
110 We can convey this information to Mup like this:
120 <IMG SRC="mugex4.gif" ALT="Picture of Mup output"><BR>
123 Note that in this example, the key was specified as two sharps.
124 You can also specify the key by name:
130 These parameters give a very different sort of information than the notes of
131 a measure, so they go in a separate section of the input file.
132 Each section of the file describes information for a specific
133 <A HREF="contexts.html">"context."</A>
134 Information about musical notes is given in "music" context,
135 while things that apply in general to the whole
136 score are given in "score" context.
137 Once you start a measure in music context, you have to complete that measure
138 before switching to another context, but otherwise you can pretty much
139 change from one context to another as necessary.
140 Each new context section is headed by its name (e.g.,
141 "music" or "score").
142 At the beginning of input, music context is assumed.
145 Here is a more complicated example:
157 <IMG SRC="mugex5.gif" ALT="Picture of Mup output"><BR>
158 This example starts by setting some parameters. First it states that this
159 piece of music should be printed with two staffs, instead of the default of
160 only one. Then it gives a key signature. Since there is no "flat" symbol
161 on a standard computer keyboard, Mup uses the "&" symbol for flat.
162 The time signature is then set to 2/4.
165 Next we find the keyword "music," which indicates the end of parameters
166 and the beginning of the music. Data is given for both staff 1 and staff 2.
167 Staff 1 has two chords in the measure. The first is a C minor triad (it's
168 minor since the key is three flats). No time value is specified for this
169 chord. Since it is the very first chord of the piece, Mup cannot use the
170 previous chord's time value, because there is no previous chord.
171 In this case, Mup falls back to using the denominator (bottom number)
172 of the time signature,
173 so the chord is a quarter note. Incidentally, if Mup has to back up to
174 previous notes to deduce pitch and/or time values, it only goes back as far
175 as the beginning of the current measure. That means the default time value
176 for the first chord of every measure in this piece would be quarter note.
177 The second chord on staff 1 is the same as the first, since only a semicolon
181 Staff 2 has only a single chord, consisting of a half note with pitch C.
182 Mup checks to make sure the time values on each staff add up to the time
183 signature--no more or less--and will print an error message if they don't.
184 If you have something like a "pickup" measure, which doesn't add up to the
185 time signature, you can specify "space" rather than a chord,
186 to account for the rest of the time.
189 Some parameters can be set on a per-staff basis as well as for the entire
190 score. Mup also allows for
191 <A HREF="param.html#vscheme">up to three independent voices on each staff,</A>
192 and each voice can have parameters
193 set that apply to only that voice. To get the
194 value of a parameter, Mup always starts at the most specific place it could
195 be defined and works toward the most general. In other words, it will first
196 see if the parameter is set for the current voice. If not, it will see if
197 it is set for the current staff. If not, it will use the value set for the
198 entire score. Staff parameters are set in "staff" context, and voice parameters
199 are set in "voice" context.
214 <IMG SRC="mugex6.gif" ALT="Picture of Mup output"><BR>
215 Staff 2 will have two flats, whereas the other staffs will have one flat.
216 Staff 2 will use the bass clef, whereas the other staffs will use treble
217 clef (since that is the default when none is specified).
218 <A HREF="param.html">The complete list of Mup parameters</A>
220 information about whether they can be set for an individual staff
221 or voice, or just for the score as a whole.
224 Page headers and footers
227 Mup allows you to specify a
228 <A HREF="headfoot.html">header and/or footer</A>
229 to put on the first page,
230 as well as a header and/or footer to use on subsequent pages. These can
231 include a page number that will be incremented automatically as pages are
232 printed. The headers and footers can be customized as you like, with
233 different fonts and sizes of text and items centered or left or right
234 justified. There is also a shortcut
235 <A HREF="prnttext.html">"title" command</A>
236 that can be used to create a canned format title. For example:
238 title "Three Blind Mice"
240 will create a centered title. You can also get left and right justified titles.
247 <A HREF="lyrics.html">lyrics</A>
248 for as many verses as you like. They are specified
249 somewhat like notes. As an example:
252 lyrics 1: 4;;2; "Three blind mice,";
255 <IMG SRC="mugex7.gif" ALT="Picture of Mup output"><BR>
256 This example describes the lyrics to go with staff 1. There are three lyric
257 syllables, having time values of quarter note, quarter note, and half note.
258 The actual syllables are given inside the double quotes.
259 Incidentally, since in this example the time values for the lyrics
260 are the same as those of the notes, the time values don't actually need to
261 be specified; if no lyrics time values are given, Mup assumes they
262 match the note time values.
268 Mup provides a way to
269 <A HREF="textmark.html">print arbitrary text</A>
270 (like "allegro") and
271 <A HREF="mussym.html">musical symbols</A>
272 (like a fermata). It can also print
273 <A HREF="phrase.html">phrase marks,</A>
274 <A HREF="pedal.html">piano pedal marks,</A>
275 etc. The placement of these items is specified in terms
276 of "counts" into the measure. For example:
278 boldital below 1: 3 "mf";
280 <IMG SRC="mugex8.gif" ALT="Picture of Mup output"><BR>
281 tells Mup to print "mf" in bold-italics below staff 1, at count 3 of the
284 <A HREF="chrdattr.html#withlist">marks associated with specific chords.</A>
285 All of these facilities are described in detail in following sections.
288 Displaying, printing, and playing music
291 Once you have an input file, you can run Mup on it to get the printed
292 version of the music. Entering:
296 from a command line prompt or selecting Run > Display from Mupmate
297 will cause Mup to read <I>myfile</I>, which should contain text in the Mup
298 input language. If there are no errors in <I>myfile</I>, PostScript output
299 will be produced, which can be displayed on the screen or printed via
300 Mupmate or other programs. Mup can also produce
301 <A HREF="midi.html">MIDI output,</A>
302 which can then be played on your speakers.
305 If you are using Ghostscript, but without Mupmate,
306 two utility programs are included with Mup
308 <A HREF="utilpgms.html">displaying and printing music</A>
310 These are described in more detail in the next section.
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