RE: How to structure piano music?

[Mark Stephen Mrotek]

Joram,

My response is based on a trial and success learning of Lilypond, not on any 
in-depth understanding of its codes or workings.
I set piano music using 2.16.2. To me "voices" means a polyphonic setting, 
e.g., a fugue. Lilypond seems to think the same. So using the command "voice" 
always separates the parts. A chord, " < >," is treated as belonging to one 
voice.

One option is the command: \merge DifferentHeadedOn (in 2.16.2)
This may look more like what you want, yet it eliminates the visual 
voice-leading.

Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: address@hidden [mailto:address@hidden On Behalf Of Noeck
Sent: Saturday, November 16, 2013 11:33 AM
To: lilypond-user
Subject: How to structure piano music?

Hi,

I am trying to engrave small pieces for piano and I realize how difficult that 
can be. What should be my approach?

The example is meant to be one staff of a piano staff group (PianoStaff). I 
don't want to have any shifts for notes played at the same time. The voices 
should combine to chords (as it is in the last measure).

I tried 4 possibilities (shown in four measures):
1) << {} {} {} >> : default way to stack music
2) \voiceOne|Three|Two : mark them as voices to avoid collisions
3) \voiceOne|Four|Two : just a variant of 2)
4) version 1) with manual setting of stem and slur directions

1) to 3) are not what I want. 4) looks ok, but is that really the way to go? Do 
I really have to set all directions of stems, slurs, articulations, etc. 
manually? Or is there a way to automatically combine voices to chords for 
piano, such that they split when necessary like on the first beat and that they 
form chords wherever possible like during the remainder of the example measure?

Cheers,
Joram