Re: Two spacing bugs: tuplets, staves...plus: ottava/8va parentheses on continuation?

[Marcus Macauley]

On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 05:43:32 -0800, Trevor Bača"" <address@hidden>
wrote:

> Hi Marcus,
>
> Bug #1 can be fixed by turning on uniform-stretching in the  
> SpacingSpanner:
>
> \new Score \with {
>    \override SpacingSpanner #'uniform-stretching = ##t
> }
>        <<
>                \staffPianoI
>                \staffPianoII
>        >>
>
>        \midi {
>                \tempo 2 = 90
>        }
>
>        \layout  {
>        }
>
> \paper {
> }
>
> Turn this property (and most other properties of the abstract
> SpacingSpanner) on at the beginning of the score.
>
> Whether tuplets should induce ugly spacing gaps seems to be the matter
> of some political debate, so for some time longer you may have to
> continue to set uniform-stretching by hand in any of your pieces that
> include overlapping tuplets ;-)

Thanks, Trevor. Indeed, that's what I was looking for, and it pretty much
solved my problem. Unfortunately, it led me to discover another (this time
incontrovertible) spacing bug, and then another, both caused by the
\override SpacingSpanner #'uniform-stretching = ##t
setting in connection with time signatures.

I will post a report on that shortly in a new thread.

 From a brief search/scan of some past threads, it seemed to me like the
tuplet spacing issue (whether they should be spaced evenly) was less a
matter of taste and more a technical problem to be solved (but there
didn't seem to be an easy solution). I think it had to do with whether the
spacing was measured from the left part of one note to the left part of
another, or as the space strictly *between* notes. Either way apparently
caused problems for some types of music when stretching it out. I believe
under "normal" spacing (e.g., with ragged-right), polyrhythmic tuplets are
spaced evenly by default.

I'd be surprised if anyone earnestly defends the uneven spacing of tuplets
for aesthetic reasons (except in cases where the unevenness of other parts
necessitates it).

Marcus