Re: Cowell/Ferneyhough Unconventional Meters

[Joseph Wakeling]

On 07/05/2011 08:57 AM, address@hidden wrote:
> On Jul 5, 2011, at 8:29 AM, Joey wrote:
> 
>> In Ferneyhough's etudes transcendentales,
>> he employs meters such as 2/12 or 2/10,
>> acting as literal subdivisions of the semi-breve.
> 
> The easiest way would be to create an override for the time signature stencil:

No, you don't need to be so complicated. :-)

Just put

  \time 2/10

Lilypond will give you a _warning_ that this is a non-standard time
signature, but it can handle the time signature and will produce a
corresponding bar of two quintuplet-eighths in length.

N.B. you _will_ need to put in place

  \times 4/5 {}

around the content of any such bar in order to ensure that quintuplets
are your base content type.

Try giving Lilypond the following:

{
    \time 2/10
    \times 4/5 { c'8 c'8 }
    c'8 c'8
}

... and compare what happens in the first and second bar.