Re: ScholarLy and polymetric music? (bar numbering, \RemoveEmptyStaffContext)

[Kieren MacMillan]

Hi Graham,

> On the positive side:
> +1    This scheme guarantees a unique id for each bar.  The id increases in a 
> sensible manner.
> +2    The scheme is robust with respect to re-formatting, if systems are 
> split or joined.
> +3    Since Lilypond's default behaviour is to break lines only where 
> barlines co-incide and to number bars at the start of each line 
> (Staff.BarNumber.break-visibility = ##(#f #f #t)), it would work with that.
> 
> On the negative side:
> -1    We have to introduce non-integers.  I don't think the current 
> bar-numbering engine will cope with that in cases where +3, above, does not 
> apply.

I didn’t really think of (or, to be honest, care about) Lilypond’s current 
bar-numbering engine; I was simply trying to solve a problem in notation. I can 
make the bar numbers appear however I want (by overriding the stencil, manually 
setting the barnumber counter, etc.).

> -2    Where +3 does apply, musicians will get confused.  One will look at the 
> start of the line (bar "n") and count across in the conventional way (n+1, 
> n+2, ...) and announce the supposed bar number.  Everyone else will then look 
> on the wrong line entirely.

Sorry: I took it as self-evident [though, of course, it isn’t] that in 
polymetric music, bar numbers must appear on every bar, not just at the 
beginning of the line.

> On balance I don't think it would work.

Well, until I hear a superior suggestion, this is the one I’m going to use.  =)

Thanks,
Kieren.
________________________________

Kieren MacMillan, composer
‣ website: www.kierenmacmillan.info
‣ email: address@hidden