Re: engraving rules question - voices with merged heads

[James Bailey]

On Jan 29, 2011, at 11:25 AM, Janek Warchoł wrote:

> 2011/1/29 James Bailey <address@hidden>:
>> 
>> On Jan 29, 2011, at 12:17 AM, Janek Warchoł wrote:
>> 
>>> Hi,
>>> 
>>> recently i was told that this notation
>>> 
>>>  { \mergeDifferentlyHeadedOn << b'2 \\ { b'8 a' g' f' } >> }
>>> 
>>> is not allowed in vocal music (i.e., the noteheads shouldn't be
>>> merged). Is that true?
>> 
>> correct. you shouldn't merge heads in vocal music.
> 
> Interesting. Is that true also when both voices have filled noteheads, i.e.
> 
>  { << { b'4 g' } \\ { b'8 a' g' f' } >> }
> 
> ?
> Here LilyPond merges noteheads automatically, and i don't remember any
> simple means to switch that off.
> 
> Thanks,
> Janek

This is different. One voice has a beam, while the other doesn't. There isn't 
any way to mistake a half note for a quarter note in this case, as is the case 
in the other. Here, it is perfectly acceptable to merge noteheads. The idea is 
to make reading the music possible. With vocal music, two (or more) people will 
be looking at the notes. with different heads merged, there's no way to tell 
the rhythmic value of the merged notehead. in this case, because 
differently-valued noteheads are never merged for vocal music, it's quite clear 
that voice one must be a quarter note. Here, there's no need to switch that off 
because there's no ambiguity. Two scans for added clarity.