trick/tip: hairpin length control

[Kieren Richard MacMillan]

Hello, all --

Just in case you haven't stumbled across this one, I seem to have  
found a nice way of controlling the end of hairpins without  
instantiating extra voices... [Haven't found any negative side- 
effects yet, but if you can see one, please warn me!]

For example, David Sanders wrote:
> One of the most annoying things I found when transcribing music
> was the necessity of entering hairpins on single notes
> with the very clumsy notation of the type
>
> << {c1} {s4 \< s s s \!} >>
>
> I was wondering if someone has written a scheme function
> or whatever to make this kind of thing simpler?

I've (just) discovered that the following works nicely:

        c1*15/16\> s1*1/16\!

In other words, you use a note value to generate the "displayed  
note", then use a factor to shorten the note's "internal length", and  
add an invisible (skipped) "remainder" to anchor the end of the hairpin!

Here's a sample with the same sequence of notes but two different  
hairpin lengths:

\version "2.8.1"
\relative c'
{
        \dynamicUp
        c1*15/16\> s1*1/16\! d4 e f g \break
        c1*1/3\> s1*2/3\! d4 e f g \break
}

Of course, you'll have to experiment yourself with exact lengths, but  
this sure beats all the << { insert spacing crud here } \\ { notes }  
>> I used to do...  =)

Hope this helps!
Kieren.