LilyPond 2.11.13, Linux This message pertains to ties between single and multiple voice sections of notation of polyphonic instruments, using a technique suggested by Joe Neeman of moving the Tie_engraver from the default Voice context to the Staff context instead.
A Goal ------ Piano (and presumably other polyphonic instrument) notation often includes sections where a single polyphonic voice splits into two or more voices for the sake of convenience and clarity of notation. These temporary changes in number of voices per staff, often as brief as a mere fraction of a measure, are common and there are frequently ties between these sections of one-, two-, or three- or more voice sections. It would be very nice if there were an easy way to allow ties to extend from one voice to another voice, from a single voice to multiple voices, or from multiple voices to fewer voices or a single voice, without resorting to code that is complex, verbose or which uses "tricks" to accomplish the task. A Proposed Solution ------------------- One possible solution, proposed by Joe Neeman, is to cause the Tie_engraver to act at the Staff level instead of the Voice level, by removing it in the \layout section from the Voice context and inserting the Tie_engraver into the Staff context. This seems like a great solution, but because the Tie_engraver was originally intended for a Voice context, some unexpected issues may occur when trying to use the Tie_engraver at the Staff level instead of the Voice level. Issues So Far ------------- In trying the technique of moving the Tie_engraver from the Voice level to the Staff level while notating a piano piece with many instances of single-to-multiple voices and vice versa, with many ties between the sections of fewer and more numerous voices, I have encountered a few issues so far. Issue 1: As illustrated in Figure 1 (attached PNG), LilyPond's default placement of the tie between the top notes of chords 2 and 3 of the illustration is so short (to avoid the flat symbol on the 3rd chord) that it is invisible, unless the chords (and measures that contain the chords) are spaced farther apart horizontally (which I did with the \break command at the end of the second measure), as illustrated in Figure 2. Issue 2: I tried to manually add horizontal space between the second and third chord with the following-- \once \override Score.SeparationItem #'padding = #2 --between the 2nd and 3rd chord. However, that had no effect. Does this tweak still work, or has it been deprecated? Issue 3: I tried to manually configure the ties between the second and third chords using-- <ees g c>8~ \once \override Score.TieColumn #'tie-configuration = #'( (4 . 1) #t ) <ees aes c>4 --However, as is illustrated in Figure 3 (attached PNG image), although the top tie was correctly formatted, the lower tie, which is supposed to be beween the lowest notes of the 3-note chords, was misplaced for some reason by LilyPond. Notice that instead of "TieColumn" I had to use "Score.TieColumn" because the Tie_engraver is now in the Staff rather than Voice context, and a simple "TieColumn" had no effect whatsoever. Also note that I had to raise the top tie to staff position 4 (3 was insufficient to cause the tie to clear the top of the flat symbol on the 3rd chord). *** *** *** *** *** *** *** I would be _happy_to_sponsor_ whatever work these issues might require, if Han-Wen and the developers consider the features worthy enough. :-) I'm sure more issues will come to light as I "stress-test" this idea of moving the Tie_engraver from the Voice to the Staff context, but I think it's a great idea and a great solution if the "kinks" can be worked out. Notators of polyphonic instruments such as the piano will be very grateful for this functionality. Best wishes everyone, Steve D New Mexico, US -- ---------------------------------------------------------------- Seen at a bicycle enthusiasts' web forum-- Question: How many people with Attention Deficit Disorder does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: Want to go on a bike ride?! ----------------------------------------------------------------
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