Re: Three voices plus tie in RH - notation best practice?

[David Raleigh Arnold]

On Wed, 2011-10-19 at 16:27 +0800, James Harkins wrote:
> Hi, a "notational correctness" question rather than a lilypond technical 
> question, hope that's okay.
> 
> A student brought in some work today, some of which calls for three voices in 
> the right hand of a PianoStaff. Minus expressive marks, the lilypond example 
> below gets the point across, but I wonder if there's a better way? The 
> collision at the beginning of bar 2, between the a4~ a2 tie and the c# in 
> voice 1, seems inevitable but it isn't pretty. (\tieDown looks even worse.)
> 
> So, those of you with a notation reference or two in your library, how would 
> you handle this?
> 
> Thanks!
> James
> 
> PS Sorry for the non-tiny example. In this case, the voicing is complex 
> enough that I wanted to be explicit about all the new voices.
> 
> 
> \version "2.14.2"
> \include "english.ly"
> 
> \score {
>   \new PianoStaff <<
>     \new Staff {
>       \key d \major
>       \numericTimeSignature
>       <<
>       \new Voice \relative c'' {
>         \voiceOne
>         r2 r8 cs?4.~ cs2
>       }
>       \new Voice \relative c'' {
>         \voiceTwo
>         a16 fs e fs \repeat tremolo 2 { e fs } \repeat tremolo 2 { e fs } a16 
> fs e fs
>         \repeat tremolo 4 { e fs }
>       }
>       \new Voice \relative c'' {
>         \voiceThree
>         a2. a4~ a2
>       }
>       >>
>       r2
>     }
>     \new Staff {
>       \key d \major \clef bass
>       \numericTimeSignature
>       <<
>       \new Voice \relative c' {
>         \voiceOne
>         g16 b c b \repeat tremolo 2 { c b } \repeat tremolo 2 { c b } g16 b c 
> b
>         \repeat tremolo 4 { c b }
>       }
>       \new Voice \relative c' {
>         \voiceTwo
>         g2.\sustainOn g4~\sustainOn g2
>       }
>       >>
>       r2\sustainOff
>     }
>   >>
> }

What you have is correct enough. There is no such thing as an authority
on music notation, especially when it comes to more than two voices on
one stave. Guitar music publishers had it worked out pretty well two
centuries ago, but there are interesting rules that have been forgotten.
If you think you have trouble, you should be thankful that you don't
have to deal with rests in the inside part. I've seen conflicting
practices, wholesale, in the music of F. Sor. It may not seem so, but
you've been given a break here.

Since you have chosen to combine five rests into two in the 2nd measure
(nothing wrong with that here) why not appear to combine the two top
voices at the bar? Because of the ties, because both notes have the same
time value and therefore can share a stem, and because it's piano music,
that could have no effect on how the piece would be played.

Or shift the alto note to the left. It is clear that both top notes are
on the beat because of the ties no matter that they are not aligned.
Regards, daveA