Re: How to parenthesize a time signature

[Vicente Solsona]

On Thu, 09 Dec 2010 01:36:23 +0100, Jonathan Wilkes <address@hidden>  
wrote:

> Greetings Lilypouncers,
>      Is there a quick way to parenthesize a simple time signature?
> I'm not sure whether this is standard or not, but I used it once or
> twice at the beginning of a score that shows an excerpt from, say, the
> middle of a piece, to make it clear that the time signature also
> applied to the music leading up to the excerpt.  (I think I used it a
> long time ago in a copy job for a musicologist, but I can't be sure.)
>
> Thanks,
> Jonathan

it is possible to put it between square brackets:

http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.12/input/lsr/lilypond-snippets/Staff-notation#Time-signature-in-parentheses

a *very* rough method to put it into "rounded" parenthesis could be:

-----------------------8<-------------------------------------------------

\version "2.12.3"

#(define ((parenthesize-time up down) grob)
  (grob-interpret-markup grob
    (markup #:override '(baseline-skip . 0) #:number
      (#:line (
          #:vcenter "("
          (#:column (up down))
          #:vcenter ")" )))))

\relative c'' {
        
  \override Staff.TimeSignature #'stencil = #(parenthesize-time "2" "4")    
  \time 2/4
  a4 b8 c
}

-----------------------8<-------------------------------------------------

you can hopefully tweak it further to suit your needs...

greetings,

Vicente