I do this sort of thing with one of GABC's insert-verbatim-code commands such as [ev: text here] which are very useful. First, I rendered the GABC of the original Christe. Then, I opened the Tex file which was produced and cut and pasted the Tex code which was producing the notes for the syllable "Chri" into the GABC file within an [ev: text here] verbatim code command, deleting the old GABC notes for the syllable. At this point, the file would render the same way as the original because all I had done was to replace GABC code with Tex commands; to actually fix the punctum mora, now that the Tex code was accessible in the GABC, all I had to do was put the \grepunctummora{g}{3}{0}{0} command which is generating the dot into a \raisebox and tell it how high to raise. The result thus obtained is below; the code, which works in the Gregorio demo page, gives first an unaltered Christe, then the fixed one. The pdf is the same as what is produced by the code. I hope this explanation helps!

name:;
initial-style:0;
%%
Chr{í}(g.f!gwh)ste(gv.efED.) (,)
%
Chr{í}([ev:%
\greglyph{\char 5121}{g}{g}{8}{}{%
\raisebox{1pt}{\grepunctummora{g}{3}{0}{0}}%
}%
\greendofglyph{1}%
\greglyph{\char 2561}{g}{g}{4}{}{}%
]%
)ste(gv.efED.) (,)

Do you run Gregorio with Tex, or with one of the pages available online?
I have been working on a large project using Tex to run Gregorio, ever since my father figured out the installation for me (I am not particularly used to doing that kind of thing), and in the process have solved a number of nit-picky engraving problems that I have come across.

For anyone who has used only the online pages to run Gregorio, here's a attempt at a non-technical explanation of what goes on when you use Tex yourself, and in particular, how you can tinker with things. This stuff is covered somewhat on the Gregorio site, but here goes for my take on the process. Beware - I may not know all the right terms for computer-related things, I am just trying to give a general idea of how it works!

Tex is a typesetting program; however, unlike Word, it is what seems to be called a "programming language".

This means that to produce a pdf of written text on a page, you work in a window typing not only the actual text you want to appear in the pdf, but also commands to tell Tex to do things like begin and end the document, indent, change fonts, etc. This combination of commands and actual text is saved as a file with .tex for an ending - something like: myniftychantbook.tex

When you are done typing your stuff into the window, you click a button, and Tex renders your input as a pdf, and opens it in another window. Thus a .tex file which was something like:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
Hello world!
\end{document}

would produce a pdf of a page with the text "Hello world!".

To use Gregorio with Tex (here we skip how to get it all working!), one first types up the score as GABC code in a Tex window, but saves it with something like kyrie.gabc for a name. Using the Gregorio option, you then click a button, and this GABC code is then rendered to produce another file, kyrie.tex (which will look even more complicated than the GABC code; that is why the computer produces it for you).

When you type a command to tell Tex to include the file kyrie.tex in the main file, myniftychantbook.tex, your output pdf will now include the score of the Kyrie, plus whatever else is in the myniftychantbook.tex file.

Let's say you find a mistake in the score that show up in your pdf. You can fix your file kyrie.gabc by writing correct GABC code (and then render it to produce the correct kyrie.tex file, and re-render the myniftychantbook.tex to produce the pdf), or you can perhaps fix the kyrie.tex file directly. When fixing kyrie.tex, besides fiddling with the commands and variables of the code generated by rendering kyrie.gabc, you could also use any regular Tex commands that you thought might work. I have found that things that add or subtract horizontal space, in particular, are very useful, as you might imagine.

The problem with this method is: if you render kyrie.gabc again, any changes you made to kyrie.tex will get overwritten, and need to be re-done. Thus, it is better to incorporate them into kyrie.gabc. This is what I did with your example; the complicated stuff like \grepunctummora... are commands that were produced in the .tex file when I rendered the .gabc on my computer. The \raisebox... thingamajig is a Tex command, useful for moving text in a box up or down. Tex is all about moving stuff up/down or right/left, by the way.

Where'd I learn this stuff? There are lots of help items for Tex and Gregorio online, if you can only get your local computer-savvy person to get it working on your computer. Two links to the Gregorio site which might not be immediately useful:

http://home.gna.org/gregorio/gregoriotex/details
The section "Insert Code: For Advanced Users" gives the three commands which can be used to include Tex commands into GABC code. (I still don't quite understand exactly what the three different commands do all the time, but I can usually get the results I want!).

http://home.gna.org/gregorio/gregoriotex/details
When you have a .tex file to look at, this page will explain what a lot of it means.

TeX ( /ˈtɛx/ as in Greek, but often pronounced /ˈtɛk/ in English) is a typesetting system designed and mostly written by Donald Knuth and released in 1978.

Homeboy is religious, too, and into Organs.


(image: Donald Knuth's living room)