Re: difficult question to ask about spacing

[Joshua Nichols]

Thanks, I feel this particularly nails my problem on the head. I don't know what to do at this point.

IX,

Josh

On Fri, Jul 24, 2015 at 4:08 AM, Alexander Kobel <address@hidden> wrote:

Hi all,

On 2015-07-24 04:06, Nick Baskin wrote:

[...] some piano music  [...]

aha!

[...] Anywho, I'm trying to break a system mid
line and re start another one on the same line with a small amount of
space between where the last one let off. I'm also trying to do it
in a vocal context with lyrics. [...]

Would it be possible to use this DS al coda snippet
(http://lsr.di.unimi.it/LSR/Item?id=198) for what you want to do?

YMMV. As far as I know, there is a catch with each and every DS al coda snippet out there. Unless I missed some news, there are two approaches:

1.) Use \stopStaff, spacer rests, and \startStaff, or
2.) Use a markup line with two scores and a horizontal space in between.

Let's ignore that you will need to know where line breaks are around the line with the gap (in particular for the second version).

Version 1 is almost perfect for single-staff music - easy to use, looks good; you mostly have to make sure that clef, key signature and maybe bar numbers are shown again, the gap is reasonably large, and that measure numbers are not off. Might be a bit cumbersome, but all of that is well supported with built-in methods.
However, for a score with several staves in groups (piano (!), chorus, ...), I am not aware of any way to redraw the SystemStartBrackets or SystemStartBraces when \startStaff comes into effect.
BTW, this approach is what the snippet in the LSR boils down to.

Version 2 theoretically offers full flexibility, but all spacing (in particular, vertical spacing) is computed separately from the overall score. If your score is even slightly non-trivial, chances are that you will end up with a imperfect solution even after fiddling around with many settings,


Bottom line: does anybody know whether it's possible to redraw a SystemStartBrace in the middle of the line and thus solve the issue of the first version? I already spent some hours (mostly trial-and-error) on that a while ago, but could not achieve anything useful.


Best,
Alexander