Re: Problem with bar numbers

[Thomas Morley]

Hi Don,

2017-03-14 9:11 GMT+01:00 Don Gingrich <address@hidden>:
> OK, I'll start by saying that I'm doing some things that
> are wrong as far as musical purists are concerned,
> but there *is* a reason.
>
> I'm typesetting scores for folk dance music sets.
> Typically, (but not exclusively) music for folk dance
> consists of an 8 bar 'A' part and an 8 bar 'B' part.
>
> It is often written with an anacrusis at the start of
> both the A and B parts. And the A part ends with
> a bar with the value of time - (A anacrusis)
> The B part may also start with its own anacrusis.
> The two anacrusii will almost always have the same
> duration and the final bar will be similar in duration
> to the A part ending.
>
> The reason that it gets written this way is that
> dances require varying numbers of bars of music.
> But always a multiple of the A/B part which is
> commonly 8 bars. To make things easier for the
> dancers, the tune may be played with different
> numbers of repetitions of the A and B parts.
> A good band will endeavour to finish a dance section
> at the end of the B part so that the new couple
> always begin on the first time through the A part
> of either the current tune or a new one.
>
> This also explains the AABBx2 markup
>
> So it breaks the rules of music theory, but there is
> a reason.
>
> I've translated XML files and they generally end up
> with sN*M to fill out the anacrusis and terminal
> bars. It works but it's ugly since it adds horizontal
> space  that is unwanted. So I've been using
> \partial and copping the warnings since it looks
> better. (It's just the "programmer" in me that doesn't
> like code that "compiles" with warnings.)
>
> What would be nice is either an allowed alternative
> partial or a variant of the s code that says
> "ignore this many beats" .
>
> The other problem is that the bar numbers get
> screwed up with these anacrusii that aren't supposed
> to be there.
>
> If it were up to me, I'd re-number at the start of each tune,
> but I'm working to someone else's preferred appearance
> which he achieves with Finale. I'm getting close but
> the bar numbers are defeating me. I tried getting
> a number on every bar. and thought that I had the
> correct command in:
>
>  \set Score.barNumberVisibility = #(every-nth-bar-number-visible 1)

The correct way is to override BarNumber.break-visibility, preferable in layout:

\layout {
  \context {
    \Score
    \override BarNumber.break-visibility = ##(#f #t #t)
  }
}


> But I still only get numbers at the left side of the staff.
>
> I thought about a bunch of big rests, but then there wouldn't
> have been as many bars. Sorry it's such a big example. It's
> actually 6 tunes across 2 pages with a D.S al Fine at the
> finish of the sixth one.

Well, I didn't understand what you want instead.
Maybe play with
\set Timing.measureLength = #(ly:make-moment <whateverfraction>)
See NR for examples.

Cheers,
  Harm