Re: Issue 1776 in lilypond: Doc: NR - Polymetric Notation \compoundMeter isn't documented

[lilypond]

Comment #18 on issue 1776 by address@hidden: Doc: NR - Polymetric  
Notation \compoundMeter isn't documented
http://code.google.com/p/lilypond/issues/detail?id=1776

yes, most of it I can fix in a new patch but there is one thread I will  
cut/paste below as it seems to be about (un)expected functionality of  
\compoundMeter and AutoBeaming and what a compound meter is musically.

I will remove the affected para from the patch for now - it doesn't affect  
the core patch in terms of telling users how to use the function - and if  
there is no consensus before the rest is approved we can make a new tracker  
(or use this one). I don't see any reason to hold the patch up otherwise.

--snip--
2011/8/4  <address@hidden>:
> I would definitely mention here that the automatic beaming
> and the beam subdivisions are automatically derived from  the \compound
> meter.

Are the subdivisions really used?  When i compile

{ \compoundMeter #'((2 3 4))  \repeat unfold 20 c'16 }

I get 8 sixteenths beamed together and then 12 sixteenths beamed
together (with no subdivisions), while i'd expect that every four
sixteenths there would be single beam insted of double beam (to be
precise, i'd expect a single beam between 4th&5th, 12th&13th and
16th&17th notes).
If this is unclear, i'll post an image when i'll get back to my
Lily-enabled computer.

> Speaking in more music theory terms: A compound meter does not only say
> how long the measure is, but it also gives the information about the
> beat structure (the "meter"), ie. which notes are slightly accented.
> That's why I didn't call it \compoundTime, but \compoundMeter. Lilypond
> automatically uses that information, too.

BTW, when i searched for "compound meter" on the web, virtually every
place i found said that compound meter is a meter in which beats are
not divided in two.  So, for example, 12/8 is a compound meter
(because it consists of 4 groups, three eights each).  Constructs like
(2+3)/4 are called additive meter, complex meter etc.  Are you sure
that compoundMeter is a appropriate name for this function?

cheers,
Janek

--snip--

James