On Wed, Dec 21, 2016 at 5:22 AM, Alexander Kobel-2 [via Lilypond] <
address@hidden> wrote:
On 2016-12-20 17:21, Abraham Lee wrote:
Maybe the question I really have is this: what does "given this
length _if possible_" mean and what governs this possibility? I
can totally understand how they work individually, I'm just
trying to understand how I can use them well together since it
seems that forced-length contradicts collapse-length.
You won't really use them together; at least, not both will be effective
at the same time:
(1) If the natural length (essentially: the distance from the right end
of the syllable to the right end of the last note in the corresponding
melisma) is less than collapse-length, this extender will not be printed.
(2) If you /force/ an extender, that is, you explicitly add one for a
syllable that does not belong to a melisma, there is no "natural length"
- simply because there is no "natural extender". The "faked" length of
such an extender will be given by the minimum of forced-length and the
available space to the next syllable. Again, this will not affect the
space between the notes.
Forced extenders should only be necessary under extraordinary
circumstances, such as an extender reaching into a alternative ending of
a repeat, re-extending after rests, or even more obscure design studies.
Ah! I understand now. Thank you for explaining that. So, it's "Force an
extender to appear if there is sufficient space (i.e., at least as much as
"collapse-length"), even in places they wouldn't normally be used."