Another thought, how about the name \regular? It works in two senses: 1. Instead of contrasting relative and absolute the contrast is between relative and plain "{…}" entry, which is LilyPond's default, standard, or “regular” mode of note entry. So \regular makes it explicit that the notes are entered in the regular entry mode rather than the relative one.
2. “regular” also refers to the consistency or regularity of the octave indications in this entry mode, as contrasted with relative mode — the regularity where ,,, ,, , ’ ’’ ’’’ each refers to the same octave within the {…}. As in this dictionary definition of “regular”: "arranged in or constituting a constant or definite pattern, especially with the same space between individual instances”. (3. A mostly-trivial poetic bonus: regular and relative are easy to remember as a pair because the alliteration of them both starting with “re".) Since \regular doesn’t have the “absolute pitch" connotations of \absolute it doesn’t present the same cognitive dissonance when its notes are shifted in relation to a reference octave (with an optional argument). And I’d say its descriptiveness or intuitiveness is at least as good as \fixed, maybe better. Worth considering. \relative { c'' g' e c } \regular { c'' g'' e'' c'' } \regular c'' { c g e c } -Paul _______________________________________________ lilypond-devel mailing list lilypond-devel@gnu.org https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-devel