Re: polytempi in Lilypond - is it possible?

[Alexander Kobel]

On 2016-10-25 21:48, Bálint Laczkó wrote:
> Hey Everybody,
>
> I would like to engrave a polytempical musical material in LilyPond. [...]
> Now ideally I would like to see this engraved in a proportional way, so
> that the lower staff has a wider spacing, and so the notes are
> distributed in the two staves illustrating their exact relation to a
> mutual time-scale (so in short: sort of like on the picture above).
> Is there any way I can do this?

Hi Bálint,

have a look at section 1.2.3, Polymetric notation in the Notation 
Reference (NR):

http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.18/Documentation/notation/displaying-rhythms#polymetric-notation

There is one difference to your example: in the usual approach, there is 
only a per-score tempo; the note durations (not appearance) are scaled 
to fit this reference metrum. Essentially, you will have one "master 
staff" that stays true to time, everything else is scaled to fit.

If you want even more control over horizontal positioning of the notes, 
also consider NR sec. 4.5.5:

http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.18/Documentation/notation/proportional-notation
Especially the uniform stretching is highly useful in many contemporary 
works; your case ask for strict proportional spacing.

I'm not 100% sure how to fit unique bar line positions per staff into 
that picture, though; and I'm not sure whether I like it. To me, measure 
numbers and bar positions are a global thing, so I'd rather have a rest 
with fermata at the end and a common final barline; in between, I'm unsure.
Is this piece supposed to be conducted by several conductors? Then, 
different bar lines make sense, but maybe they could be faked with 
breathe marks or something similar; if there is only one conductor, I 
feel that the bar lines should be with him, for the entire score.


HTH,
Alexander