Re: Line-breaking with non-aligned barlines - again!

[David Sumbler]

-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas Morley <address@hidden>
To: David Sumbler <address@hidden>
CC: lilypond-user <address@hidden>
Subject: Re: Line-breaking with non-aligned barlines - again!
Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2018 22:00:51 +0100

Am Mo., 10. Dez. 2018 um 18:25 Uhr schrieb David Sumbler <
address@hidden>:
> 
> To recap:
> 
>    3 days ago I wrote (with this subject line) that I have a passage
> to
>    set where one instrument (harpsichord) plays 8 bars in 4/4 time,
>    consisting mainly of semiquavers (sixteenths).  It has to be
> played
>    in strict time at its own tempo (4 = 108), which is quicker than
> the
>    rest of the orchestra is playing.
> 
>    Although the harpsichord part must appear in the score, it is
>    important that it is clear that it doesn't "fit" with the other
>    instruments.  It starts at a common barline, but thereafter it
> does
>    its own thing, so the positioning of the notes in the score is
>    merely a suggestion of what is going on: in performance it won't
>    necessarily fit precisely as it is shown in the score, but it is
> not
>    expected to.
> 
>    By using scaled durations etc. I can get roughly the effect I
> want.
>    But is it spoiled by one thing: there is a 4/4 time signature in
> all
>    instruments (including the harpsichord) at the beginning of the
>    passage, but there are also a couple of further time changes in
> the
>    orchestra only.  It is easy enough to prevent these from appearing
>    in the harpsichord part; but because Lilypond synchronises
>    everything vertically (just as one wants it to 99.99% of the time)
>    it ruins the effect.  This is because there is a large gap between
>    successive notes in the harpsichord to allow for the time
> signature
>    displayed in all the other staves.
> 
> I have not had any suggestions as to how I might get Lilypond to set
> the harpsichord part without regard to the spacing on the other
> lines;
> this strongly suggests that, as I suspected, it can't be done!
> (Although if anyone knows otherwise, I'd be glad to hear about it.)

Well, you could try like below, but it has it's own short-comings:

\version "2.19.82"


\paper {
  ragged-right = ##f
}

harps = {
  \time 2/4
  \scaleDurations 8/11 {
    b16[ b b b] b[ b b b] \bar "|" \noBreak b[ b b \bar ""
  }
  \noBreak
  \override Staff.TimeSignature.stencil = ##f
  \time 3/8
  \scaleDurations 3/4 {
    b16] b[ b b b] \bar "|" \noBreak b[ b b \bar ""
  }
  \noBreak
  \time 5/8
  \scaleDurations 10/13 {
    b16] b[ b b b] \bar "|" \noBreak  b[ b b b] b[ b b b]
  }
}

\score { \new Staff { \time 2/4 \repeat unfold 32 b16 } }

\score { \new Staff { \harps } }

\score {
  <<
    \new Staff { \harps }
    \new Staff {
      \time 2/4 b4 b |
      \time 3/8 b4 b8 |
      \time 5/8 b4 b b8 |
    }
  >>
  \layout {
    \context {
      \Score
      \remove "Timing_translator"
      \remove "Default_bar_line_engraver"
      %% !!!!!
      \override SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
    }
    \context {
      \Staff
      \consists "Timing_translator"
      \consists "Default_bar_line_engraver"
    }
  }
}

I'm not really convinced, thus I didn't post this before...

Cheers,
  Harm
--------------------------------------------------------

I was very excited when I saw the output of the above with its one
extra line.  Although the upper line looked slightly oddly spaced, it
would certainly be acceptable in the full score.

Unfortunately the real orchestral parts are considerably more
complicated than the line of crotchets and quavers I used in the
example, and the short-comings of strict-note-spacing became clear:
notes in the orchestra were actually being printed over the time
signatures.

I wondered what would happen if I removed SpacingSpanner from the Score
context and added it to Staff.  Then, just in the harpsichord part, I
could add 

\override Staff.SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t

at the relevant point.  Sure enough, the orchestra parts were correctly
lined up just as they normally would be; but unfortunately the
harpsichord part was also still spaced to conform with them, just as in
my original version.

But thanks for the suggestion - and it has also directed my attention
to some parts of the Lilypond "engine" that I didn't know about
previously.

David