Getting correct chord names according to Norwegian notation tradition

Eirik B <[email protected]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 21:10:19 +0000
Newsgroups gmane.comp.gnu.lilypond.general
Message-ID <GVZP280MB0840A6A43BDDD46E337038CBA6EF2@GVZP280MB0840.SWEP280.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM>
Greetings,

After reading the change log for 2.26.0 I find that the \language command is now decoupled from the chord name outputs, such that the chord names are unaffected by the language selection (which is probably a good thing). Below I have provided two minimal examples where Norwegian is the selected language, compiled in 2.26.0 and 2.24.4, respectively.

[cid:f1a45857-0840-4a31-b108-ac505d609eaf]
\version "2.26.0"
\language"norsk" % affects only input note names
<<
  \chords {h/fis b}
  { h'4 b' }
>>

[cid:349bd7f7-5b8e-426d-89c9-299821e9ba7f]
\version "2.24.4"
\language"norsk" % affects both input note names and chord name output
<<
  \chords {h/fis b}
  { h'4 b' }
>>

As you can see, selecting Norwegian language made the following change from the default english in 2.24.4:
B -> H         (1)
Bb -> Hb    (2)

Transformation (2) is not correct. It should be Bb - > B. When specifying \germanChords, both transformation (1) and (2) is correct (I wonder if Hb is used by any tradition at all ...). However, the bass note is not - it should be uppercase with the accidental symbol (like in default English).

[cid:e12137c7-5701-4560-b74f-3d86ff1fdc65]
\version "2.26.0"
\language"norsk" % affects only input note names
<<
  \chords {\germanChords h/fis b}
  { h'4 b' }
>>


I was hoping to to create my own \norwegianChords command, but I have not been able to do so myself. Reading the documentation, it seems I need to use the chordRootNamer property, but I couldn't understand how to implement it properly for my problem.

My question is thus: How can I create a \norwegianChords command that produces chord name outputs using the default english as a base with the two chord name transformations indicated above?

Thanks,

Eirik
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