Re: Merging Rests in Single Staff with more than one 'voice'

[Jan Warchoł]

2011/1/22 David Raleigh Arnold <address@hidden>:
> On Saturday 22 January 2011 12:52:54 James Lowe wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I don't often use multiple voices in a single staff, so am a bit
>> unfamiliar and am still finding my way.
>
>> However I cannot easily see how I can take two 'voices' each from a
>> single source such that when they are combined on a single staff the
>> rests that both voices share are only printed once.
>>
>> For example
>>
>>
>> \musicSourceOne = { a4 b c d | R1*4 | a4 r b r2 }
>> \musicSourceTwo = { f4 r f r | R1*4 | f4 f g r2 }
>
> Your example is very simple, so merging is good or at least not
> bad. In single staff polyphony which is not very simple, merging
> rests is a very bad idea because it ruins the integrity of the
> voices and can create arresting ambiguities. It ought not to be a
> candidate for default behavior with the notable exception of the
> whole measure or multimeasure rest, which cannot easily be
> misread.

Yes, i agree that merging all rests shouldn't be default behaviour
(with the exception of multi-measure rests).
However, having the merge-rests function added to lilypond itself (se
we can use it when we want without needing to write it by hand) would
be very good!

cheers,
Janek