Re: Forcing horizontal space between successive notes

[Lukas-Fabian Moser]

Hi David,
> I have various clunky workarounds for this problem, but I am still
> wondering whether there isn't a neater way.
>
> How can one force additional space between 2 successive musical moments
> in a score, without affecting the spacing algorithm to the left and
> right?  This is occasionally desirable, for instance to leave
> horizontal space for some textual instruction or narration.
>
> I have experimented with all sorts of parameters for various items such
> as PaperColumn, VerticalAlignment, SpacingSpanner and others, but so
> far without any success.

Not perfect, but you could use the fact that in proportional notation it 
is possible (necessary) to define a factor which basically controls how 
much the music is going to be stretched:

\version "2.19.82"

\new Staff {
  <<
    {
      \repeat unfold 100 c'16 }

  {
    % Force extension between 1st and 2nd quaver in bar 2
    s1
    \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/100)
    s8
    \unset Score.proportionalNotationDuration
  }
  >>
}

Increasing the denominator (100 in this case) increases the amount of 
stretching.

Drawback: Maybe you do not actually want proportional spacing to be used 
between the musical moments taken as left and right boundary of the area 
to be stretched. But for me this always was acceptable.

Lukas