Re: \accidentalStyle for common choir notation

[David Wright]

On Tue 21 Jun 2016 at 14:53:08 (+0200), Jonathan Scholbach wrote:
> At your other point: Well, I agree that the usage of the desired
> \accidentalStyle can be a matter of discussion. But it is a very common
> practice. And there are good arguments for using it (choirsingers often
> orientate - consciously or unconsciously - on the harmonies they are
> hearing in the other voices.). Anyway, my question was not about best
> practice of typesetting but about the realisation of a certain feature
> in LilyPond. I would be grateful, if we stuck to this original question.

Sure, I understand (y)our problem; I call it "selling a dummy" (as in rugger).

> Phil Holmes wrote:
> What you're asking for is not adding a natural when there's a previous
> sharp in a different /voice/, but in a different /staff/.  As a
> long-time singer myself, I'd find that terribly confusing.  If the 2
> voices are on the same staff, I could understand it.

It seems odd that this should confuse people because it's standard
fare in LP's piano music, under "Automatic accidentals" in the
Notation Manual. As the effect is acoustic, the staff is immaterial;
you might be singing from your own staff or even your own partbook.

Unfortunately piano accidentals only work with non-ChoirStaff, so my
workaround is to use GrandStaff:

\layout {
  \context {
    \Score
    \override SystemStartBar.collapse-height = #1
  }
  \context {
    \GrandStaff
    systemStartDelimiter = #'SystemStartBracket
    \override SystemStartBracket.collapse-height = #1
    \remove Span_bar_engraver
    \accepts Lyrics
  }
}
accident = { \accidentalStyle piano-cautionary } % put in voices in Staff

(...though you'll want to delete -cautionary. The collapse stuff
fixes the problem of a single staff losing its choral decoration.)
So you end up with:

\score {
  \new GrandStaff <<
    \new Staff <<
      \set Staff.instrumentName = "Soprano"
      \new Voice = "upper" { \accident \soprano }
    >>
    \new Staff <<
      \set Staff.instrumentName = "Alto"
      \new Voice = "lower" { \accident \alto }
    >>
  >>
}

> On 21.06.2016 13:31, Jonathan Scholbach wrote:
> > Can someone please help me? I grubbed myself through the manuals and
> > was still unable to find a way to write my own /\accidentalStyle/

Perhaps someone may know how to hack scm/music-functions.scm (I assume
that's the file) to make \accidentalStyle piano/piano-cautionary work
in any Staff group.

Cheers,
David.