[Re: Proper handling of accidentals in unmetered music?]

[Ruud van Silfhout]

Oops, forgot to CC it to the devel-list.
And I just saw 'mixed-meter'discussion on the user list concerning the 
same issue.

Ruud
-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        Re: Proper handling of accidentals in unmetered music?
Date:   Fri, 02 Sep 2005 22:11:11 +0200
From:   Ruud van Silfhout <address@hidden>
To:     Mats Bengtsson <address@hidden>
References:     <address@hidden>



Mats Bengtsson wrote:

> Related to this mornings question by Mehmet:
>
> What is the best way to handle music with irregular meter where you
> don't want to explicitly specify the time signature for each change
> and still make the accidentals behave as normal within measures and
> between measures?
>
> Is it possible to add something more than \bar "|" at each
> bar line in the following example to manually make it be
> treated as a new bar also when it comes to accidental handling?
> Obvious things like \cadenzaOff \bar "|" \cadenzaOn don't work.
>
> \version "2.6.0"
>
> % Solution 1:
> \new Staff \relative c'{
> % Uncomment to get rid of the initial time signature:
> %\override Score.TimeSignature #'print-function = ##f
> \cadenzaOn
> c4 c cis cis \bar "|"
> cis cis d \bar "|"  % Problem, no new accidental on cis!
> }
>
>
> I almost regret the solution I proposed to Mehmet already now:
>
> % Solution 2: Gives new accidental on every beat
> \new Staff \relative c'{
> % Uncomment to get rid of the initial time signature:
> %\override Score.TimeSignature #'print-function = ##f
>
> \set Timing.measureLength = #(ly:make-moment 1 4)
> \set Timing.automaticBars = ##f
>
> c4 c cis cis \bar "|"
> cis cis d \bar "|"
> }
>
>
>
> One solution which in a way is the cleanest is to
> actually specify all time signatures in the input and
> just turn them off in the output (which makes it easy
> to turn them on again if the musicians complain too loudly
> about the missing time signatures). One obvious disadvantage
> is that the input is somewhat more tedious:
>
> % Solution 3:
> \new Staff \relative c'{
> \override Score.TimeSignature #'print-function = ##f
> \time 4/4
> c4 c cis cis
> \time 3/4
> cis cis d
> }
>
>
> Any other ideas?
>
>    /Mats

This could be mixed nicely with another feature that has been requested 
once and awhile:
composite time signatures (or compound timesignatures as I also have 
seen). This is used in modern church music. This could be specified with 
something like '\timeset { 4/4 3/4 }'. This triggers the follwoing behavior:
1. At the point of definition the time signature are printed.
2. By default the actual time signature is set to the first signature in 
the set.
3. When a timesignature changes within the set i.e. from 3/4 to 4/4 and 
back, no timesignature is printed by default.
4. When a timesignature changes from something in the time signature set 
to something outside it, then the timesignature is printed by default.
5. When a timesignature is changed from something outside the set to 
someting in it, then the time signature is not printed by default.
6. An empty set reverts the behaviour to the normal lilypond behaviour 
with the currently active timesignature, which is then printed by default.
7. All items mentioned before as 'by default' are tweakable properties.

If the extra '\time x/y' statements are too much to type one could also 
think of using the "|" to simplify notation, although this leads to 
overloaded usage of the "|" symbol.

% Proposal  4:
\new Staff \relative c'{
\timeset { 4/4 3/4  } % initially both timesignatures aree shown in the 
order given
c4 c cis cis 
\time 3/4  % by default: not shown as it is in the timeset
cis cis d
\time 4/4 % by default not shown as it is in the timeset
cis cis c c
\time 2/4 % by default shown as it is not in the set
c c
\time 4/4 % by default shown as it is in the set (and the previous one 
wasn't)
c c cis cis
\timeset {} % empty the set and coninue as lily would do normally.
}

Hope this helps....  ;-)

Ruud