Feature request - extended ties

[Steve D]

Han-Wen, all--

Han-Wen, there is a feature for LilyPond that I would be happy to 
pay for you to develop, whatever amount you think would be 
appropriate.

It is a feature that persons who score for piano would benefit 
from and appreciate, so on behalf of myself and future LilyPond 
users who score for piano, I would like to suggest the feature 
and ask what you think.

The feature request involves ties. Normally, a tie only appears 
for a note of exactly the same pitch that immediately follows the 
note with the tie indicator (~), whether the following note is 
singular or within a chord. If the following note in the same 
voice is not the same pitch, or the following chord contains no 
note of the same pitch, the tie does not appear. Correct?

What would be useful, in piano scoring, is to have a feature to 
extend a tie or ties of notes within a block, so that the 
searching for a note with the same pitch, to tie to, is deferred 
until the end of the block. For example:

\extendTies { c16~ e~ g~ } <c e g bes>4

which would extend the ties of the 16th notes in the preceding 
block to the c , e  and g of the following chord. Likewise:

\extendTies { c16~ e~ f g a b c~ } <c e c'>

would tie the c , e  and octave-c of the notes in the block 
(played with both hands) to the c , e  and octave-c in the 
following chord. If the notes that follow the block are not a 
chord but instead a single note, then only the note that matches 
the pitch in the preceding block (and includes a tie marking, of 
course) would tie to the note following the block. Any other 
notes in the block that have tie markings would be disregarded.

I'm not sure what other instruments would make use of such 
notation, but it is not uncommon to see in piano scores. Here is 
a webpage that illustrates the notation, with references to 
several popular books on notation that describe this notational 
convention:

http://www.greschak.com/notation/finale/iwbni/fs711.htm

The feature I am requesting is already possible to implement, but 
only by writing some fairly complex-looking notation (temporary 
multiple voices with invisible notes (with visible ties) that 
precisely duplicate the pitches and horizontal positions of the 
notes within a primary, visible single voice on a staff, for 
example).

Thank you for your time and consideration, and thank you, and 
Jan, and all the developers and contributors to this excellent 
program.

Best wishes,

Steve Doonan, New Mexico, US (-7 UTC)