Re: (unknown)

[David Kastrup]

ed stuckems <address@hidden> writes:

> What's special about the \clef command in the following:
>
> According to section 2.2.1 of the manual:
>
> "To determine the number of staves in a piece, LilyPond looks at the
> beginning of the first expression. If there is a single note, there is
> one staff; if there is a simultaneous expression, there is more than
> one staff."
>
> This would appear to be the case in the following:
>
> <<
>  { f a c e }
>  { e g b d }
> >>
>
> However, if a \clef is specified, the statement doesn't appear to
> hold.  For example, the following doesn't produce multiple staves
> despite the fact that the beginning of the first expression starts
> with simultaneous expression like the example above:
>
> <<
>  { f a c e }
>  { \clef "bass" e g b d }
> >>

[...]

> So my question is "why does adding the \clef also require adding the
> "\new Staff" when section 2.2.1 suggests otherwise?"  What have I
> missed?

Actually, it is not the clef that is special but rather "rhythmic
events" like f and e.  The clef more or less works by just setting a few
Staff properties, and since a Staff already exists at the time of \clef
"bass", it just uses that.  The following e is no longer in the special
position of being considered a Staff-starter.

Automatically started staffs might not have been the best possible idea,
particularly in parallel music.  It is usually least problematic to
explicitly specify all of your staffs.

-- 
David Kastrup