Music functions and markup

[Br. Samuel Springuel]

I'm typesetting a bunch of chant in modern notation (i.e. stemless 
without timing, etc.).  These pieces are being pulled from different 
sources which have different conventions for a hollow note.  In some 
cases it's a stemless half-note, in others a whole note, and in still 
others a breve (with either one or two lines).  Now, while I'm going to 
want a consistent look for these in the final project, I don't yet know 
which convention we're going to settle on and thus need to be able to 
change things rather easily.

To that end I developed a function which takes a single note as its 
argument and applies a specific duration to it.  By defining this 
function in the project format file (which is included in every score in 
the project) and using the function to indicate the hollow notes instead 
of explicit durations, I can change the look of all such notes simply by 
changing the duration in the function.

However, I've run into a problem in that some of these notes have markup 
attached to them and the function doesn't like that.  It wants a plain 
pitch.  Is there a way that I can modify the function so that it doesn't 
revolt when markup is attached to the note it is supposed to apply to or 
insert the markup in the same place so that it isn't attached to the note?

Snippet follows (note, doesn't compile in current state because of markup):

\version "2.19.53"
\language "english"

hold = #(define-music-function (note) (ly:pitch?)
     #{
       $note 2 % or 1 or \breve
     #})

global = { \key c \major \omit Stem \set Score.timing = ##f }

music = { \hold b-flat'^\markup {Cantor} a' g' f' \bar "|" }

\new Staff \with {
    \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } {
        \new Voice = "mel" {\voiceOne \global \music}
}

--
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Br. Samuel, OSB
St. Anselm’s Abbey
Washington, DC
(R. Padraic Springuel)

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