FW: Bar numbers at beginning of line

[Walter Hofmeister]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Mats Bengtsson <address@hidden>
Date: Mon, 06 Aug 2007 22:37:12 +0200
To: Walter Hofmeister <address@hidden>
Subject: Re: Bar numbers at beginning of line

Please always keep the discussion on the mailing list, for the benefit
of yourself since you get access to the collected
expertise on the list and for the benefit of others who experience
similar problems. Feel free to quote my answer below if you wish.



Quoting Walter Hofmeister <address@hidden>:

> On 8/6/07 7:20 AM, "Mats Bengtsson" <address@hidden> wrote:
>
>> As a musician, I would get very confused if I saw a bar number
>> in the middle of a measure (which is what you seem to try to achieve).
>> If the conductor asked an orchestra to play from bar 100 and the bar
>> number was printed that way, I'm sure that
>> at least half the orchestra would start at the top of the line
>> (i.e. in the middle of the measure) not at the beginning of the full
>> measure.
>>
> I agree. However, in this example the end of the first section and the
> beginning of the second section (both incomplete) falls at the beginning of
> the line. If the conductor asked the orchestra to start with the pickup to
> bar 9, they would be forced to count up from the beginning of the previous
> line, or back from the next line.

Not if you follow my recommendation below.

> This would not be an issue if the split
> bar was placed somewhere else other that the beginning of the line.
>
>> To avoid this possible confusion, I would strongly recommend to instead
>> typeset the bar number at the first bar line of the new line.
>>
> Got it. By using "\override Score.BarNumber #'break-visibility =
> #end-of-line-invisible" preceding the notes of bar 9, I get a measure number
> at the beginning of bar 9. Then if I use "\override Score.BarNumber
> #'break-visibility = #begin-of-line-visible", the measure numbers revert
> back to the beginning of the line.

Easier is to use a \once \override Score.BarNumber #'break-visibility =
#all-visible
just before the bar line where you want the bar number.

> This is acceptable but I think that it
> would look better if there was a bar number at the beginning of each line
> regardless of whether it is a broken measure or not (in this case bar 8,
> which would make the pickup very easy). If this was an orchestral part, it
> would probably be wise to place a rehearsal mark over the beginning of the
> 9th bar.

As I already said, I would strongly recommend against that solution, to
avoid confusion.

>> I afraid that you may need some advanced Scheme hacking to obtain
>> this in LilyPond, but it's certainly doable (don't have the time to
>> figure out the details right now).
>>
> I was afraid of this, but thanks anyway.

I was just confused and was looking for a very complicated solution
to the break-visibility setting described above.
Of course, if you want to make it completely automated, then you will
need something more complicated.

    /Mats



------ End of Forwarded Message