questions in regards to combining multiple parts

[crimsonsunrise]

After looking and not finding much, on top of asking in the mailing list without much return, I have a few questions in regards to \partcombine

- Considering a number of scores have an odd number of instruments combined (i.e. 3 Trumpets, 3 Clarinets, etc.), why partcombine only works on an even number of parts? Shouldn't partcombine work on *n* number of parts instead?

- If you can only combine two parts, how you get things like the usual "1,2", "a3", "2,3", "1,3" and similar to work and print properly? If you chain two partcombines, there's no third part, so "2,3" is impossible to ever print, let alone "a3" or "1,3".

- If, instead of partcombining the parts, you make them separate voices of a single staff, how you get the markups mentioned before to print in the combined staff without making them be something inside one of the parts?