Re: Best Practices for Multiple Part Scores

[James Harkins]

> Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2011 09:25:43 -0400
> From: "address@hidden" <address@hidden>
> Subject: Best Practices for Multiple Part Scores

I'm also relatively new to ly so I don't have detailed answers.

> I am specifically looking for advice on the following subjects:
> - Time, key, and tempo changes (and any other "global" markings)
> should clearly be specified in just one place.  Where is that, and how
> should it be incorporated to the music?  I've been trying to copy the
> "spacer rest" model, which seems to be the right idea, but that
> disrupts any multi-measure rests on the various parts.  Another
> possible strategy would give them to one "master" part and quote them
> elsewhere, perhaps?

No idea.

> - Multiple parts per staff (e.g. four-part choral music on two
> staves): how to handle duplicate dynamics, phrasing, doubled rests and
> notes, etc?

There are choral-staff examples in the notation reference, under "simultaneous 
notes" I think.

> - Short lived divisi - is there a better method than using < > on
> every note?  What about a passage with rhythmic differences?  Must
> this be separated into yet another part?

This is one area where I think lilypond beats finale, hands down. In finale, 
splitting into multiple voices can occur only at measure boundaries. If you 
have to split in the middle of the bar, then you have to hide some rests in one 
voice and change the rests' vertical position in the other voice, and probably 
change stem, tie and slur direction also. But it's trivial in lilypond.

\version "2.14.1"

\relative c'' {
  c4 d
  %% This "simultaneous passage" is in the middle of a bar.
  %% No hidden/spacer rests, no futzing with stems.
  %% Finale can't touch that!
  <<
    { \voiceOne e4 ^ \markup { \italic "div." } d }
    \\
    { \voiceTwo c8 a b4 }
  >>
  c1 ^ \markup { \italic "unis." }
}

> - Phrases or passages played multiple times by the same or different
> parts: I'd like to abstract them out, but how do I incorporate them in
> the proper point in the part and octave, etc.?

Music variables.

aphrase = { ... blah blah ... }

Then you can use \aphrase anywhere inside a music expression to copy it 
exactly. There are also transposition commands that you can apply to the 
contents of the variable.

> What is amazing to me is that LIlyPond is capable of just about
> anything.  What is frustrating to me is that doing something that
> seems to be standard in music notation (such as writing multiple
> parts) takes so much manual effort and so many hacks to look good.

Maybe I haven't lived with it long enough to see the dark side, but it looks to 
me like ly requires fewer hacks and less fussing than finale. I don't know how 
much the latest version of finale has improved, but I recall that conflict 
resolution in multi-voice music in the last version of finale that I used 
(2009, I think) was pretty much disastrous.

By contrast: http://lsr.dsi.unimi.it/LSR/Item?id=480 -- there is only one short 
line of customization, and ly's result is far, far better than finale's 
un-tweaked output would be. (The only thing that looks funny to me is the 
placement of the dots in the upper part. But if I remember right, finale 
wouldn't even try to avoid collisions between stems and dots...)

James


--
James Harkins /// dewdrop world
address@hidden
http://www.dewdrop-world.net

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