Making overlapping grace notes

[Andrew Bernard]

Hello Ponderers,

My score has many places where a beamed set of grace notes start precisely on a note in a voice, and consequently overlap the first starting note. This is fine, and what the composer specifically intends (common notation in the New Complexity School). The attached image shows a snippet of a typical scenario.

In my example, I can’t get the start of the grace to sit on top of the note in the other voice. Indeed, lilypond is being very excellent about avoiding a collision, but I want to persuade it to align. I can achieve this with normal notes, but not with grace notes. Is this even remotely possible?

\version "2.19.25"

treble = {

  \clef treble

  \time 1/4

  s4

}

bass = {

  \clef bass

  \time 1/4

  \stemDown

  <<

    {

      cis,,16. b,,8 d,32

    }

    \new Voice

    {

      s16. s8 s32

      \grace {

        \bar ""

        \once \override NoteColumn.force-hshift = #-1 % no effect

        d,8

        bes,

        \change Staff = "treble"

        \stemDown

        e'

        \bar "|"

      } |

    }

  >>

  \oneVoice

}

\score {

  \new PianoStaff

  <<

    \new Staff = "treble" { \treble }

    \new Staff = "bass" { \bass }

  >>

  \layout { }

}

Andrew

overlapping-grace-notes.jpg
Description: JPEG image