Quick start

Notation

A note is written as

5/4:1/2:1

where 5/4 is a ratio giving the note’s frequency, 1/2 a ratio giving its duration, and 1 a ratio giving its volume.

The volume of a note can be left out and is then taken as 1, so the same note can be written

5/4:1/2

A rest is written as a note with zero frequency, so a two beat rest is written as

0:2

A chord is written as

<1 5/4 3/2>:1:1/2

where the chord contains three frequencies 1, 5/4, and 3/2, and has a duration of 1 and volume of 1/2.

The volume of the chord can be left out, so

<1 5/4 3/2>:1

is the same chord but with volume 1.

Consecutive notes or chords are written one after the other, so

5/4:1 4/3:1

is a 5/4 played before a 4/3, both of duration 1.

Simultaneous parts are separated by a semicolon, so

2:1 3/2:1 6/5:2 ;
1/2:2 3/4:2

is a three note melody over a two note bass line.

You can multiply the frequency of a note using *, so

5/4*3/2:1

is a note with frequency 15/8.

You can also multiply the frequency of a whole group of notes surrounded by ( ), so

3/2*(1:1 5/4:1 3/2:1)

is three notes of frequency 3/2, 15/8, and 9/4.

You can multiply the volume of a group of notes using **, so

(1:1 5/4:1 3/2:1)**3/2

is three notes with volume 3/2.

Music can be entered interactively by running

$ jird

then typing in music and pressing enter to play it.

Music can be saved in a text file and played by running

$ jird music.txt

A file ratios.txt containing ratios one per line, e.g.

8/7
7/6
9/7
14/9
12/7
7/4

can be used for ear training by running

$ jird --train ratios.txt

Intervals are played at random to be typed in at a prompt.

A lilypond representation of sheet music annotated with ratios and cent deviations can be generated by running

$ jird -l music.txt

and a pdf of the sheet music generated by then running

$ lilypond music.ly

A midi file and scala scl and kbm files for use with synths which support retuning can be generated by running

$ jird -m music.txt

A Csound score can be generated by running

$ jird --csound music.txt