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Note names in other languages

There are predefined sets of note names for various other languages. To use them, include the language-specific init file. For example, to use English notes names, add \include "english.ly" to the top of the input file. The available language files and the note names they define are:

Language Note names sharp flat double sharp double flat
nederlands.ly c d e f g a bes b -is -es -isis -eses
arabic.ly do re mi fa sol la sib si -d -b -dd -bb
catalan.ly do re mi fa sol la sib si -d/-s -b -dd/-ss -bb
deutsch.ly c d e f g a b h -is -es -isis -eses
english.ly c d e f g a bf b -s/-sharp -f/-flat -ss/-x/-sharpsharp -ff/-flatflat
espanol.ly do re mi fa sol la sib si -s -b -ss -bb
italiano.ly do re mi fa sol la sib si -d -b -dd -bb
norsk.ly c d e f g a b h -iss/-is -ess/-es -ississ/-isis -essess/-eses
portugues.ly do re mi fa sol la sib si -s -b -ss -bb
suomi.ly c d e f g a b h -is -es -isis -eses
svenska.ly c d e f g a b h -iss -ess -ississ -essess
vlaams.ly do re mi fa sol la sib si -k -b -kk -bb

In Dutch, aes is contracted to as, but both forms are accepted in LilyPond. Similarly, both es and ees are accepted. This also applies to aeses / ases and eeses / eses. Sometimes only these contracted names are defined in the corresponding language files.

     
     a2 as e es a ases e eses

[image of music]

Some music uses microtones whose alterations are fractions of a ‘normal’ sharp or flat. The note names for quarter-tones defined in the various language files are listed in the following table. Here the prefixes semi- and sesqui- mean ‘half’ and ‘one and a half’, respectively. For the other languages, no special names have been defined yet.

Language Note names semi-sharp semi-flat sesqui-sharp sesqui-flat
nederlands.ly c d e f g a bes b -ih -eh -isih -eseh
arabic.ly do re mi fa sol la sib si -sd -sb -dsd -bsb
deutsch.ly c d e f g a b h -ih -eh -isih -eseh
english.ly c d e f g a bf b -qs -qf -tqs -tqf
italiano.ly do re mi fa sol la sib si -sd -sb -dsd -bsb
portugues.ly do re mi fa sol la sib si -sqt -bqt -stqt -btqt

See also

Music Glossary: Pitch names.

Snippets: Pitches.

This page is for LilyPond-2.11.58 (development-branch).

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Other languages: français, español, deutsch.