Re: Positioning of half rests

[Mark Polesky]

Karenee Herman wrote:
> I'm fairly new to Lily Pond, and I've been trying to get a half
> rest to center in it's space - as in, a half rest version of
> entering R1, where the whole rest centers in the measure.  There
> doesn't seem to be any info on it in the manuals or the
> mailing-list archive.  Does anyone know how to do this?
>
> I've attached the PDF.  In the second measure, I need the half
> rest to center over the eighth notes, as opposed to aligning to
> the left like a half note.  Hope this makes sense, and that
> someone can help!

Are you sure you need to do this? It's non-standard notation. Most
good musicians would probably get annoyed seeing centered half
rests, and you'd get points taken off if you centered half rests
on a notation test.

_____________________


See Kurt Stone (Music Notation in the Twentieth Century) p.136:
All rests must be aligned vertically (i.e., rhythmically) with the
notes or rests above and below. Only whole-measure rests are
centered.

_____________________


Or Gardner Read (Music Notation) p.96:
The written position of a rest between two barlines---like the
position of a note---is determined by its location in the meter.
In other words, a rest always occupies the same position in a
measure that an equivalent note-value would fill---with one
important exception ....
....
The only exception to the rule of rest placement is the whole
rest, which is always *centered* in the measure, whereas the whole
note would of course occupy the written position of the first beat
of the measure.

_____________________


Or Ted Ross (The Art of Music Engraving & Processing) p.174:
The half rest, which is exactly like the whole rest in shape and
size, is situated on top of the middle staff line, vertically
aligned with the beat to which it pertains.

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Or George Heussenstamm (The Norton Manual of Music Notation) p.34:
Whole and half rests have the same basic shape, *but*:
   whole rests hang below the fourth line of the staff;
   half rests sit on top of the middle line;
   whole rests are always placed in the *center* of the measure.*
*except in 4/2 time where a whole rest may represent half a
measure, in which case, the rest is placed in the metrically
appropriate position (like the half rest in 4/4 time).

_____________________


If you'll be doing a lot of notating, I recommend getting a good
notation manual (Kurt Stone is the most authoritative in my
opinion).

Hope this helps.
- Mark