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Contexts

There is always a current Mup "context" that is in effect. When Mup begins reading input, it is operating in "music" context, which is where music, lyrics, barlines, and other related things are described. You can change to another context by entering its name. A context remains in effect until another context is named. The contexts are:

header

to define what goes at the top of the first page, typically the title, composer, etc.

footer

to define what goes at the bottom of the first page, typically a copyright notice, performance notes, etc.

header2

to define what is to be printed on the top of pages after the first page.

footer2

to define what is to be printed on the bottom of pages after the first page.

top

to define what is to be printed on the top of page. This gets printed below the header (or header2), if any. If the output is not already at the beginning of a new page, a new page is started. Unlike header, which can only be used once, and is used only on the very first page, top can be used multiple times. In a song with multiple movements, you might use top to put a title at the beginning of each movement.

bottom

to define what is to be printed on the bottom of page. This gets printed above the footer (or footer2), if any. If the output is not already at the beginning of a new page, a new page is started. Unlike footer, which can only be used once, and is used only on the very first page, bottom can be used multiple times.

top2

to define what is to be printed on the top of pages after the page that uses "top." If the output is not already at the beginning of a new page, a new page is started.

bottom2

to define what is to be printed on the bottom of pages after the page that uses "bottom." If the output is not already at the beginning of a new page, a new page is started.

block

to define a block that contains text rather than music.

score

to define parameters that apply to the entire score.

staff S

to define parameters to be used for staff S, where S is a number from 1 to 40. You can also specify a comma-separated list of staffs or staff ranges:

   staff 3,7	// staffs 3 and 7
   staff 1-2, 5-8, 10	// staffs 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10

voice S V

to define parameters for a particular voice V on staff S. The voice V can be either 1, 2, or 3. S is a staff number from 1 to 40. Multiple staffs and/or voices can be specified:

  voice 1-4 1	// voice 1 on staffs 1 through 4
  voice 1-2 2 & 3 1	// voice 2 on staffs 1 and 2 and voice 1 on staff 3

grids

to define grids (typically for guitar)

headshapes

to define what notehead shapes to use for notes of various durations. This context is rarely used, and is described in the chapter on shaped notes.

symbol

to define user-defined symbols, or override the appearance of built-in music symbols.

accidentals "name"

to define symbols and frequency adjustments to use for accidentals. More details are given in the chapter on Custom Accidentals and Alternate Tunings.

keymap "name"

to define a mapping from what you type in to other symbols. This is typically used to make it easier to enter strings that you want printed in another alphabet, like Cyrillic or Greek. More details are given in the keymap section of the chapter on text strings.

music

to define everything else. This includes notes, lyrics, bar lines, phrase marks, tempo and dynamic marks, etc.

Most contexts are optional. An input file just needs to contain either at least one measure of music or at least one block.

All the contexts for things that go at the tops or bottoms of pages (i.e., header, footer, header2, footer2, top, bottom, top2, bottom2) can have different versions for left and right pages, by following their name with a modifier of "leftpage" or "rightpage." This is described more fully in the section on Headers and Footers. Each of the three variations of header, footer, header2, or footer2 contexts can be used only once, although they can be placed anywhere in the file. The other contexts may appear any number of times in any order, and the order in which they occur is significant in determining the output produced.

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