Re: polytempi in Lilypond - is it possible?

[Bálint Laczkó]

Hi Alexander,

Thanks for the fast reply!

"Essentially, you will have one "master staff" that stays true to time, everything else is scaled to fit." -- so I can change the spacing(?) of the staves individually in reference to an original spacing? So if staff1 is in default spacing, then can staff2 could be in spacing 1.2 (so the overall horizontal length of staff2 would be the length of staff1 times 1.2?) Would this also mean different barline positions and everything?

Meanwhile I thought about another solution: since the proportionalNotationDuration is only working in score context, what if I place every Staff in separate \scores and all with: \with {proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/<somenumber>)} ? One of the examples in the documentation page about proportional notation throws this example, but the hard part is how to maintain the order of the scores after line breaks, and how to allow line breaks to happen inside bars too (thus keeping the exact overall space notation)? I mean ideally it would work like this: score1 line1, score2 line1, score3 line1, etc, and the in the next line: score1 line2, score2 line2, etc (so NOT score1 line1, score1 line2, etc, and then score2 line1, score2 line2, etc...). Any thought on that?

As for the practical side you brought up: of course it depends on the musical material, so yes in some cases it would need multiple conductors, in others just a bit more practise -- but I suggest that we focus on the LilyPond-side of the issue for now. :)

Thanks for the help!

Balint

2016-10-26 10:15 GMT+02:00 Alexander Kobel <address@hidden>:

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