Abjad? — Abjad v1.1.1 documentation

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# Abjad?

Abjad is an interactive software system designed to help composers build up complex pieces of music notation in an iterative and incremental way. You can use Abjad to create a symbolic representation of all the notes, rests, staves, nested rhythms, beams, slurs and other notational elements in any score. Because Abjad wraps the powerful LilyPond music notation package, you can use Abjad to control extremely fine-grained typographic details of all elements of any score, like the color and thickness of noteheads, dots, slurs and brackets. And because Abjad extends the Python programming language, you can use Abjad to make powerful and systematic changes to any part of any score. The scores that you make in Abjad can range in size from small examples of only one or two notes to full pieces of orchestral score worked out against many dozes of staves.

## Abjad extends python

Python is an object-oriented, dynamic programming language developed by Guido van Rossum in the 1990s. Python is now widely used for everything from straightforward scripting applications to the development and deployment of complex distributed systems. The language and interpreter features of Python are similar to Ruby, though the syntax of Python more closely resembles C, C++ and Java than most other languages. Much has been written about the benefits of Python and we are happy to add our voice to the chorus. We find Python to be an excellent all-purpose language that scales well, tests well, develops quickly, and keeps total lines of code to a minimum. For more on the benefits (and some limitations) of Python, see our page on Why Python is right for Abjad.

## Abjad extends lilypond

LilyPond is an open source music notation package invented by Han-Wen Nienhuys and Jan Niewenhuizen in the 1990s and still under development today. LilyPond is a command-line driven music typography system that allows for the generation of music notation of extremely high quality. LilyPond differs from other music engraving programs in a number of important ways, some of which were critical in our choice of LilyPond as the notational powerhouse underneath Abjad. LilyPond separates musical content and page layout. LiyPond affords typographic control over almost everything. And, perhaps most importantly, LilyPond implements the rhythmic model of western music correctly: broken tuplets, nonbinary meters, and durations that cross measure and line boundaries all work correctly out of the box. For these and other details relating to our selection of LilyPond as the notational engine for Abjad, see our page on Why LilyPond is right for Abjad.

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