Re: showing TimeSignatures on each line?

[Wols Lists]

On 29/08/17 22:02, Evan Laforge wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 1:46 PM, Simon Albrecht <address@hidden> wrote:
>> Hi Evan,
>>
>>
>> On 29.08.2017 22:26, Evan Laforge wrote:
>>>
>>> In music where the time signature changes a lot, it's nice to show the
>>> time signature on each line even when it hasn't changed.
>>
>>
>> Are you sure? Who does that? I looked in the very finely engraved full score
>> of Stravinsky’s Sacre, and Stravinsky and/or the engraver(s) didn’t find it
>> necessary/desirable. If it’s unnecessary there, it should be unnecessary
>> anywhere.
> 
> You might be right, I might just have made this up.  I too have the
> Rite score, but it's the conductors score, so it's reasonable to
> expect the conductor to always know what the meter is.  

Just because it's not normal practice doesn't mean people won't find it
useful. I looked at tht document about music typesetting conventions for
the first time in ages a day or so ago, and it finishes pretty much with
the statement that, at the end of the day, you do whatever makes the
*performer's* life easier. Like a lot of my music has no clef or key
signature or time signature or anything except when they change :-)

I have the
> situation where the meter changes rarely enough that you might have to
> scan back several systems to find a change, but often enough that if
> someone says "start at measure 87" that no one will know right off
> what the meter is there.  I started the practice because I myself
> would have to either count beats or scan back when starting in some
> arbitrary spot, but maybe more skilled folks can see the time
> signature more quickly than I can and don't need such training wheels.
> I number every bar too :)
> 
Not having a clue how it's done, but I'd guess the principle for
engraving time signatures and clefs and key signatures are very similar.
Look at how lily gets the clef and key signature to print at the start
of each line, and see if you can do the same with the time signature. My
guess is it's something to do with which context you attach the engraver to.

Cheers,
Wol