NEWS.md

In tabr: Music Notation Syntax, Manipulation, Analysis and Transcription in R

tabr 0.5.1

• Minor updates.

tabr 0.5.0

• Refactored and made improvements to plot_fretboard() and plot_chord() including the addition of fret_labels and fret_offset arguments.
• Updated tests and documentation.

tabr 0.4.9

• Added required package alias in documentation.
• Various minor improvements, bug fixes, and updates, including for building against newer versions of LilyPond (see tabr_lilypond_api()).
• General documentation updates.

tabr 0.4.5

• LilyPond API built and tested against a newer version of LilyPond (see tabr_lilypond_api()).
• Minor fixes and documentation updates.

tabr 0.4.4

• Documentation updates: readme, help docs, new vignette.

tabr 0.4.3

• Bug fix for dyads in freq_ratio().
• Updated some generic method implementations required for working with dplyr 1.0+.

tabr 0.4.2

• Added freq_ratio() generic for generating a data frame of frequency ratios from frequencies, noteworthy objects, or music objects.
• Added utility functions for retrieving LilyPond version and installation directory and tabr LilyPond API details.
• Fixed bug where multiple sharps in tuning broke tab staff string label LilyPond syntax.
• Updated documentation.

tabr 0.4.1

• Fixed pitch_freq() documentation error.
• Fixed bug relating to multiple labels to as_music().
• Fixed bug where lyrics were not parsed correctly when rests present for music object rendering functions.
• Fixed bug where an explicitly added bar inside quotes failed due to a line break inside the string.
• Added better support for a variety of line breaks.
  • The bar argument to phrase() (and associated functions) is now NULL by default, or character, rather than simply TRUE or FALSE. If a string is provided, it is interpreted as LilyPond bar notation. E.g., bar = "|" adds the LilyPond syntax \bar "|" to the end of a phrase.
  • If only a bar check is desired, TRUE is still accepted and will insert a bar check only rather than a literal bar. FALSE is treated as NULL for completeness.
• Handle extra whitespace in pc() and pn().
• Fixed bug where final note in a scale was dropped by scale_note().
• Unit test updates.
• Documentation updates.

tabr 0.4.0

• Breaking change: major refactor of track() function. No more relative transposed keys. Now takes an explicit key argument that overrides the global key from sheet music render functions. Other arguments simplified and rearranged.
• Refactored many package functions. Most behavior unchanged, but some breaking changes were made based on intentional shifts in perspective about what some functions should do and how the user should interact with them. This included changes to function arguments as well as some redefinition of what certain functions do.
• Substantial code optimization was done, overhauling much of the package in the process.
• Vectorized functions that previously only operated note by note.
• Generalized functions that previously could accept notes but not chords, doing so on a case by case basis in ways that are meaningful and sensible for handling chords.
• Added new classes noteinfo to complement noteworthy and associated functions.
• Added new class music which builds upon the combination of noteworthy and noteinfo, similar in content to phrase but maintaining the structure of the other tabr classes for data manipulation and analysis.
• Added implementations for several common R functions including primitives like c, length, [ and more to be used with special classes available in tabr.
• Added logical operator methods for the noteworthy class.
• Refactored some basic metadata functions as generics to dispatch to the new classes rather than only working for noteworthy objects. For example, time_format.
• Added native triplet support in note info using the t-prefix, e.g., 4 4] t8 t8- t8^ 4. Support extends to music objects and now also to phrase(), which alleviates reliance on the triplet() function and its limitations.
• Added lyrics class that parallels the structure and behavior of the other classes; added associated functions and generic method implementations.
• Added lyrics argument support to music object construction and transformations.
• Added lyrics argument to track* functions to support combining lyrics with an existing phrase object.
• Added render_music* functions for making simple sheet music snippets directly from music objects. This abstracts the phrase() |> track() [|> trackbind()] |> score() |> render_*() pipeline from the user for simpler music that is essentially a single voice, single track.
• Added plot_music* function wrappers around corresponding render_music* functions to further abstract the external LilyPond process.
• Added support for render_music* and plot_music* functions to automatically handle lyrics contained in a music object.
• Added support for auto-cropping of rendered sheet music when the output format is png.
• Added transparent background png support.
• Added a colors argument that takes a named list of color overrides for lilypond() and render_* functions.
• Added MIDI file read support (requires optional tuneR installation) and a set of functions for inspecting and manipulating the table of MIDI music data.
• Added initial support for conversion of MIDI file input to noteworthy, noteinfo, music and phrase classes so the MIDI data can be analyzed, transformed, edited and rendered to sheet music and a new MIDI file.
• Added more functions for music data manipulation and analysis.
• Added more functions for mapping between noteworthy strings, phrase objects, and data frames.
• Added functions for summarizing times and durations in noteinfo and music objects.
• Added syntax converters from_chorrrds() (for chord output from chorrrds package) and from_music21(), for converting other music notation syntax to tabr syntax.
• Added track_* wrapper functions to provide better default track arguments for different instruments and use cases.
• Added render_tab() alias to tab() for consistent naming, and other functions render_score() and render_midi() as simpler wrappers around tab() with appropriate fewer arguments and appropriate argument defaults.
• Added new vignettes on syntax conversion and rendering chord charts.
• Updated vignettes, readme and other documentation.
• Made improvements to print method for phrase objects.
• Added rests argument to some note metadata functions.
• Breaking change: Added support for many articulations. Some have abbreviated syntax options beginning with a hyphen: -., --, -+, etc. Otherwise spelled out in bracketed text: -. is the same as [staccato]. The break is that the old form of staccato ] is no longer allowed. Switch to -. or [staccato]. The leading - does not cause conflict with the single -, which continues to represent slide notation.
• No more need (or support for) the s-suffix string numbering. All instances of single string number inputs are assumed starting string and any additional strings are inferred consecutively.
• Improvements to plot_fretboard() (renamed from fretboard_plot) and added wrapper function plot_chord() for more convenient chord diagrams.
• Minor bug fixes.
• Significantly simplified LilyPond syntax for generated LilyPond files by adding simplify_phrase() and the new (default) argument to lilypond(), simplify = TRUE, which is also used by associated render_* functions.
• Thank you to fnord-repeater for several helpful suggestions and insights as well as example code that helped to make the transcription pipeline better.
• Thank you to Han Oostdijk for additional bug fixes and improvements to the code for the transcription pipeline.

tabr 0.3.5

• Added alternate input specification for sf_phrase(). Instead of providing the first three function arguments, string, fret and info, separately, you can now provide everything to the first input string as a single character string containing all three components separated by semicolons. This makes it easier to reason about the input by time step rather than by argument.
• Added chord helpers: chord_root(), chord_top(), chord_slice(), chord_is_major(), chord_is_minor().
• Added notation-frequency conversion helpers: pitch_freq(), freq_pitch() and other related functions.
• Added several more functions for inspecting and manipulating noteworthy strings.
• Code and documentation formatting and style overhaul based on stricter linting rules.
• Updated documentation and unit tests.

tabr 0.3.1

• Added no_tab argument to track() allowing for suppression of tab staff when music staff is included, e.g., for vocal tracks.
• no_tab-associated documentation and unit test updates.
• Deprecated dup and glue. Now use pn for repeating phrases n times and pc for concatenating multiple phrases.
• Updated documentation, examples, vignettes and unit tests.
• Minor bug fixes.

tabr 0.3.0

• Added fretboard_plot for making fretboard diagrams outside of the LilyPond tablature pipeline. This necessitates importing ggplot2.
• Added functions for phrase validation, coercion and decomposition back to original character string inputs.
• Added functions for note, pitch, chord and octave equivalence checks.
• Added a collection of functions for constructing and working with common chords. The chord constructors are among the chord_*-named functions and also have shorter x*-named aliases. These are "piano chords," i.e., based on the condensed, defining intervals.
• Added guitarChords dataset containing several thousand formations of guitar chord voicings.
• Added helper functions that use guitarChords for obtaining guitar chord information and mapping between different defining properties of a chord, most notably the addition of gc_notes() and gc_fretboard() for mapping chord names to noteworthy strings and fretboard diagram syntax.
• Added helper functions for working with basic note/pitch strings.
• Added helper functions for working with musical scales and modes.
• Added helper functions for working with musical intervals.
• Added noteworthy class, used internally, optional for users (includes custom print and summary methods).
• Added mainIntervals dataset.
• Added more internal checks of note and chord syntax validity across functions that work with string representations (pre-phrase object construction).
• Update older functions to utilize the new, more robust and stricter validation checks and offer more consistent noteworthy class output.
• updated transpose() to handle additional edge cases, including a new style option, strip.
• Updated and added new unit tests.
• Bug fix for case where NA-valued no-chord rests (s or r) were unnamed in output of chord_set().
• Fixed entry in tabrSyntax.
• Fix class assignment bug and updated as_phrase().
• Added a new column of relative interval size to internal .keydata helper table.
• Added new vignettes focusing on the programming aspect of tabr.
• Updated documentation.

tabr 0.2.0

• Refactored tuplet() and triplet() to accept a phrase object as well as a character string of notes. Previously, only notes were accepted but this was too limiting. The argument name has changed to from notes to x and tuplet() will now check the class of x and handle phrase objects accordingly.
• Added handling of silent rests in note strings for tuplet().
• sf_phrase() and sfp() updated to allow returning early with only the notes string as opposed to the entire phrase object. This is useful if you just want a quick, cleaner string representation of what notes are mapped by string/fret combinations.
• Minor updates to .onLoad for non-Windows systems.
• Removed tibble package dependency. Using only dplyr suffices.
• Updated Readme and basic example intro vignette.
• Added and updated unit tests.
• Added lintr to Suggests field in DESCRIPTION per CRAN maintainer request regarding testthat unit tests.

tabr 0.1.2

• Unwrapped lilypond() example from dontrun tag.
• Switched to tempdir() location for examples that write files.
• Added LilyPond to SystemRequirements field in DESCRIPTION.
• Attempt to run file-writing examples and file-writing unit tests conditionally if LilyPond found on system.

tabr 0.1.1

Adjustments to meet requirements for CRAN resubmission:

• Updated DESCRIPTION.
• Adjusted file-writing locations for unit tests to use tempdir.
• Add dontrun tag around one last file-writing package example that was using lilypond().
• Update lilypond(), tab(), midily() and miditab() to work with system calls that use absolute paths for output files instead of only working with relative paths.

tabr 0.1.0

• Added package scaffolding.
• Developed initial functions for music description and organization.
• Developed initial functions for generating LilyPond (.ly) files and wrapping around system calls to LilyPond for rendering sheet music to pdf or png.
• Added readme with basic example.
• Added initial vignette content.
• Added unit tests.
• Added support for custom, non-standard guitar tunings and instruments with different numbers of strings, up to seven.
• Added .mid to .ly and .mid to tab output convenience functions.
• Added support for multiple voices per staff.
• Added support for transposition of music staff relative to tablature staff.

tabr documentation built on Sept. 12, 2024, 6:18 a.m.