Sponsored feature request--cross-staff chords, ties

[Steve D]

I know that cross-staff beaming has been mentioned periodically on the
LilyPond lists.

It would be great, for the sake of piano and other polyphonic instrument
scores, for there to exist in LilyPond some mechanism that would allow
for chords to change staff, perhaps like single-note melodies already
can do (with \change Staff = staff-name), and which includes all of the
tie functionality.

For an example in piano music-- an arpeggiated chord played with both
hands across both staves, tied to a following chord that crosses the
staves. I recently wrote a piece in which there is a grace-note
descending arpeggio played with both hands (sequentially, first the
right then the left), that crosses from the treble to the bass staff,
and is tied to every note but the lowest note of the following chord
(see attached GIF graphic).

To do so required some "inventive" LilyPond code, hidden notes, etc.,
and in this case, the chord following the cross-staff grace-note
arpeggio was not itself a cross-staff chord. However, it would be great,
if it can be implemented, for the following to exist in LilyPond:

* chords that cross staves (perhaps like <f c \change Staff = bass g d>)

* cross-staff chords that can be tied to cross-staff chords (using
   automatic and manual tie formatting)

* cross-staff arpeggios that can be tied to cross-staff chords
   (with auto and manual tie formatting)

* grace-note arpeggios that can be tied to cross-staff chords
   (with auto and manual tie formatting)

I would be happy to sponsor such functionality.

Best wishes,

Steve

Stephen Doonan
Portales, New Mexico US
http://www.xscd.com/pub/
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