Re: Changing voice order...

[lilypond]

Am 2016-10-27 13:40, schrieb David Kastrup:
> while the documentation is quite explicit that, ordered from top to
> bottom, assignments should be more like
>
> 1/2, 3/1/2, 3/1/2/4, 5/3/1/2/4, 5/3/1/2/4/6 ...
>
> namely keeping the small voice numbers for the inner voices.

Are you sure? I always understood this as 1/3/5/6/4/2, not 5/3/1/2/4/6 
(small numbers for outer voices).

> Thoughts?

In three part polyphony the << ... \\ ... \\ ... >> shortcut makes the 
third (inner voice) a \voiceThree which means upward stems (and other 
automatically set directions). But often one should wants downward 
stems, so one needs \voiceFour. This is unintentional because there are 
no four voices; and the ordering 1/3/5/6/4/2 is very confusing for 
beginners.

Suggestion: change
    << highest \\ lowest \\ second highest \\ second lowest \\ .. >>
to
    << highest ; second highest ; ... \\ ... ; second lowest ; lowest >>
This would be a single \\ to separate upward and downward voices and ; 
(or some other symbol) to separate voices of the same kind.

So
    << vI \\ vIII \\ { \voiceFour vII } >>
would become
    << vI \\ vII ; vIII >>
(vIII being the lowest voice)