VOCAL Cue Note Problems

[Holly Briscoe]

Greetings all,

The cue notes discussed in section 8.3.4 of version 2.8.6 of the manual aren't 
exactly what I'm dealing with. The cue notes I need are in the vocal parts, 
where an optional note is printed in case the choir has enough voices to cover 
more than the four basic voices (i.e., baritone or second soprano added to 
soprano/alto/tenor/bass).

Based on a suggestion in a completely different thread, I put the cue notes in 
their own definition so that I could make them smaller, etc., but I have run 
across a few problems:

First, if the cue note is HIGHER than the regular voice note, setting stems 
transparent leaves the note head floating in space, so I feel like they must be 
visible. (See men's cue notes in measure 1 below.)

Second, if the cue note is LOWER than the regular voice note, the stems stick 
out below the regular voice's stems. (See men's cue notes in measure 2 below.) 
I tried to shorten the stems, but it doesn't seem to be working.

[And as an additional problem, though solved easily enough for my situation, if 
I don't hide beams, then the cue notes' beams don't align vertically with the 
main notes' beams, making it look like there are 16th notes instead of 8th 
notes. Comment out the autoBeamOff, stem flag style override, and shorten 
beamed stem override in both cue note definitions to see the problem.]

SO, should I just handle stem transparency on a case-by-case basis, or does 
Lilypond have something built in that I'm simply missing?

Third, because the note heads are smaller, if the stems point UP, the stems of 
the cue notes and the main notes are not aligned horizontally. I found 
force-hshift in section 6.6.3. It looks like I'd have to figure out the 
distance value experimentally. But if the line breaks change, won't that mess 
up the value? Is there a "right-justify" kind of thing I could apply to the cue 
notes (in certain measures, I guess) to make them line up with the main notes? 
(See women's cue notes in measure 1.)

Thanks so much for the help. Lilypond rocks! I just wish I could run it on 
Linux instead of WinXP. (Other requirements force me to use Windows--sigh.)

Any other recommendations on file format (indentation, white space, etc.) or 
basic Lilypond technique are also greatly appreciated. I know that in Lilypond, 
as with all things *nix, there are many ways to do the same thing, though some 
are easier for the humans looking at it six months later. :-)

Highest regards,
Holly


%% start ly snippet

%% measure numbers below refer to measures as pulled from complete score

\header {
   title = "Misaligned Vocal Cue Notes"
}

\version "2.8.6"

\include "english.ly"

womenMusic = \relative c' {
   \clef treble
   \set doubleSlurs = ##t
   \override Staff.TimeSignature #'style = #'()
   \time 4/4

   % the staff-padding adds some extra space above the staff so that
   % text notations are less likely to collide with notes and slurs
   \override TextScript #'staff-padding = #2

   % Rehearsal mark padding moves the marks up to avoid collisions also
   \override Score.RehearsalMark #'padding = #2

   \key af \major

% meas 36 women
   <g' e'>8( <e c'>) <e c'>4 r8 c'\f df[ c] |

   \break

% meas 40 women
   f,2\< r8 <f af>8\ff <f af>[ <g bf>] |

} % end womenMusic


womenCueNotes = \relative c' {
   \clef treble
   \set doubleSlurs = ##t
   \override Staff.TimeSignature #'style = #'()
   \time 4/4

   \override NoteHead #'font-size = #-3
   \override Beam#'beamed-stem-shorten = #'(0.2, 0.2, 0.2)
   \autoBeamOff
   \override Stem#'flag-style = #'no-flag

   \key af \major

   \stemUp
   c'8( g) g4 s2 | % meas 36

   \revert NoteHead #'font-size
   \autoBeamOn
   \revert Stem#'flag-style
   \revert Beam#'beamed-stem-shorten

} % end women cue notes


menMusic = \relative c {
   \clef bass
   \set doubleSlurs = ##t
   \override Staff.TimeSignature #'style = #'()
   \time 4/4


% meas 36 men
   c'8( g) g4 r2 |

% meas 40 men
   <af c>8[ <af c>] <af c> <g bf> <af c>[ <f c'>] <f c'> <ef ef'> |

} % end menMusic


menCueNotes = \relative c {
   \clef bass
   \set doubleSlurs = ##t
   \override Staff.TimeSignature #'style = #'()
   \time 4/4

   \override NoteHead #'font-size = #-3
   \override Beam#'beamed-stem-shorten = #'(0.2, 0.2, 0.2)
   \autoBeamOff
   \override Stem#'flag-style = #'no-flag

   \key af \major

   e'!8( c) c4 s2 | % meas 36

   f,8 f f ef f s8 s4 | % meas 40

   \revert NoteHead #'font-size
   \autoBeamOn
   \revert Stem#'flag-style
   \revert Beam#'beamed-stem-shorten

} % end men cue notes

womenWords = \lyricmode {

% meas 36 women
   si -- ah. The Son He

% meas 40 women
   thee. __ Sing hal -- le

}% end women words


menWords = \lyricmode {

% meas 36 men
   % none here--they sing the same as the women
   \skip 8 \skip 4 % needed for this example

% meas 40 men
   God that heal -- eth thee. Sing hal -- le

} % end men words


pianoRH = \relative c' {
   \clef treble
   \set doubleSlurs = ##t
   \override Staff.TimeSignature #'style = #'()
   \time 4/4

   \key af \major

% meas 36 RH
   r8 <g' c e>8 g'16 f e! f c8 <g c e> r8 <g c e> |

% meas 40 RH
   <af c f>[ <af c f> <af c f> <g bf ef?>] <af c f> f af bf |

} % end PianoRH


pianoLH = \relative c {
   \clef bass
   \set doubleSlurs = ##t
   \override Staff.TimeSignature #'style = #'()
   \time 4/4

   \key af \major

% meas 35 LH
   c,4 g' c, g' |

% meas 40 LH
   f4 c' f f,8 g |

} % end PianoLH


\layout {
   \context { \RemoveEmptyStaffContext }
   ragged-right = ##t
}

\paper {
   oddHeaderMarkup = "Misaligned Vocal Cue Notes"
   evenHeaderMarkup = "Misaligned Vocal Cue Notes"
}

\score {

   <<
      \override Score.BarNumber #'font-size = #3
      \override Score.VerticalAxisGroup #'remove-first = ##t
      \set Score.markFormatter = #format-mark-box-alphabet

      \new ChoirStaff <<
         \new Staff = women <<
            \new Voice = "women" { << \womenMusic >> }
            \new Voice { << \womenCueNotes >> }
         >>
         \new Lyrics = "women" { s1 }

         \new Staff = men <<
            \new Voice = "men" { << \menMusic >> }
            \new Voice { << \menCueNotes >> }
         >>
         \new Lyrics = "men" { s1 }

         \context Lyrics = women \lyricsto women \womenWords

         \context Lyrics = men \lyricsto men \menWords
      >>

      \new PianoStaff <<
         \new Staff = "pianoRH" \pianoRH
         \new Staff = "pianoLH" \pianoLH
      >>
   >>
}

%% end ly snippet

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