LilyPond

I loved Lilypond, used with Frescobaldi, for writing bagpipe music on my Windows laptop. Unfortunately, the version on this site (and any other) refuses to load on our new MacBook Air which, after one day's acquaintance, I already hate with a vengeance.

The latest downloadable version won't run on Catalina. Users of macOS 10.15 will have to compile Lilypond from source code.

I installed this notation programme and it produced a PDF file. How do i play that file. MacUpdate comments that LilyPond is an automated engraving system. It formats music beautifully and automatically, and has a friendly syntax for its input files. Reading the manual for example: You do not write music by dragging notes from a graphical toolbar and placing them on a dynamically refreshing score; you write music by typing text. Taking look at the example: wow! that seems to be harder then working with my most current versions of Sibelius or Finale or even the most rudimentary computer notation programmes. And then in the end how do you listen to the results except in your minds ear when reading ( playing in your head ) the score.

When used with "Frescobaldi" (an app which lets you see all results of your code immediately), Lilypond is one of the easiest to use music notation apps out there. Maybe even the easiest to use. And well, for sure the one with the best output with the least amount of tweaking. I have/had licenses for both Finale and Sibelius and I wished I'd had met Lilypond/Frescobaldi earlier…

I've been using Lilypond for about four years, using it to write lead sheets for jazz combos. The learning curve is steep but the tutorials will get you through that. Once you have templates set up for the kind of music you want to engrave, it becomes quick and efficient. I can go from manuscript to a lead sheet for concert, Bb horns, Eb horns and bass in 15 minutes with beautiful and easily readable music to hand to my bandmates. Another band member who uses Finale produces much inferior charts that are harder to read. Pairing Lilypond with a dedicated editor such as Frescobaldi makes it so much easier to use, also, but any text editor can be used.

Very Good App and free like in BEER!

Cool app!

FYI, there are PPC versions of both stable and beta at the developer's web site: http://lilypond.org/web/install/

Nice and free!

I am delighted to find that this latest version of Lilypond now supports Leopard and Snow Leopard - well done and thanks to the developers!

I am a great fan of Lilypond which produces beautiful music sheets. However I am concerned that the development of the Mac versions is becoming less than satisfactory. Firstly there is still no version of Lilypond that will run under Leopard. Secondly both the 2.11 and 2.12 versions produce error messages on my Macbook under OSX 10.4.11 - indeed I couldn't get version 2.12.1-1 to produce any output. I have had to revert to version 2.10.33-1

I downloaded lilypond-2.11.41-1.darwin-x86.tar.bz2 lilypond-2.10.33-1.darwin-x86.tar lilypond-2.8.8-1.darwin-x86.tar to a MacBook Pro 2.6 Intel Core 2 duo running Mac OSX 10.5.2 None of the versions above were usable at all. None showed the menubar correctly. All showed only one menu, Lilypond, with no menu items. No keyboard shortcut worked and the only way to quit the appl was to force quit it (CMD OPT ESC) Can the developer help please?

This excellent programme just gets better and better! Highly recommended for anyone writing out music scores

There seems to be a problem with the archive for version 2.11.19-2 which will not expand successfully

Ferruccio, not exactly: as stated here the application is properly reported "(PowerPC)" because the GUI is still PPC, but the typesetting program has been compiled for intel... Cheers! Luca

I admire the energy and devotion of the Lilypond developers. Also, the points they make about layout on their site are very perceptive. Unfortunately, the example they published on Macupdate looks pretty bad as far as layout goes, with collisions and unevenness. It just doesn't seem to justify the steep learning curve. As much as I am indifferent to the very complex music of Brian Ferneyhough, he uses Finale to typeset it. I imagine that it would be impossible for Lilypond to set even one bar of his music. Good luck, anyway!

Am I insane, or is there no Intel version? The Intel download on the site gives me a PPC binary that runs under Rosetta even after it is fully launched.

This is a truly excellent application. I have been using it recently to print out some lead sheets with melody, chords and lyrics and it produces superb results. There is undoubtedly an initial effort required to get to grips with the syntax. It is a little like writing a computer programme in that one has to be completely accurate. But the time spent learning how to use Lilypond is amply repaid by the results. And the sheer extent of the complex nature of the scores it is possible to engrave is quite outstanding. That the programme is also free is amazing.

A serious alternative to the commercial sector. I've been experimenting with LilyPond for a month or so, and I'm impressed. The output is clear and clean, and easy on the eye. And the division of roles is rational: the user writes the notes, specifies exactly how they should look, and the program makes them look like that. Attempts to choke it by putting ties, phrasing, accents and dynamics over the same note are more and more elegantly handled. There's a steep learning curve. Work your way through the tutorial for a start. And there's a difficult leap between producing simple scores and complex ones, such as piano scores with parts crossing between staves, but the impressive thing is how well LilyPond does these things, making visually correct layout decisions in complex situations. Given its present sophistication, it can't be long before it's the top of the range.