Re: more ossia

[Phil Holmes]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Bobroff" <address@hidden>
To: <address@hidden>
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2011 10:18 AM
Subject: more ossia


> Thanks, Trevor for tweaking my code so the lyrics line up.  I'm still at a 
> loss to understand why that is, but that can wait.
>
> In looking at the result of my struggles with ossias I have concluded that 
> I want something a bit different from what I'm getting now.  The ossia 
> sections in this score are long enough that, without clefs and key 
> signatures, they look odd.  I've been studying the section on ossias in 
> 1.6.2 (v2.12.3) of the Notation Manual.  There is an example which uses 
> \RemoveEmptyStaffContext.  This looks promising but I'm wondering if this 
> can be used with a "layering" approach.  That is, is it possible to 
> contain all the ossia passages in a single ossia = {...} and combine it 
> with the main line inside << >>.  For display I want the clefs/key sigs to 
> appear at the start of the ossia line.  I see that using 
> \RemoveEmptyStaffContext is "most convenient" when the ossia line begins 
> at a line break.  I suppose I could simply force a line break where these 
> passages begin which would/should give me the clefs and keys at the start 
> of the ossia passage (although it would be nice if I could let Lily decide 
> the line breaks and have the clef/key show up at the beginning of the 
> ossia without a floating clef at the left end of the line).  On the other 
> hand, by using \RemoveEmptyStaffContext am I constrained to adding the 
> ossia passages within the main line as it is done in the example in the 
> docs?
>
> Thanks,
>
> David

If you look at the very first example given in the Notation Reference on 
ossia staves, you'll see it has a clef and time sig.  The only reason ossia 
staves don't have them is that they're not normally wanted, and so the code 
includes:

\remove "Time_signature_engraver"
firstClef = ##f

which removes them.

However, I personally find using \RemoveEmptyStaffContext to be a simple way 
of allowing staves to appear and disappear. Fill each bar you don't want 
displaying with a MultiMeasureRest and then let LilyPond produce the music. 
Then, as you can say, you can add \break as appropriate, to place the added 
music appropriately.  You will also need

   \override VerticalAxisGroup #'remove-first = ##t


--
Phil Holmes