Re: How can I omit time signature from the very first measure, but then add it at the second one?

[David Kastrup]

Vinny <address@hidden> writes:

> Trying to write a piece where the very first bar is completely devoid of any
> time signature indicators. Under the hood it's okay if the measure is a 4/4,
> I just don't want that to be visible on the PDF. The reason is, one of the
> musicians in the group will play an unmetered, improvised intro that ends on
> the first beat of the first metered measure, so I want to put an empty
> measure there with a simple s1 and a markup for reference. I realize this is
> unconventional.
>
> I've tried \cadenzaOn and \cadenzaOff before the first occurrence of a \time
> statement, I've \hide TimeSignature and even \omit TimeSignature, but it
> seems I haven't found the correct way of accomplishing this. I'm really just
> trying anything here. I couldn't find a good solution on  Lilypond's
> unmetered music section
> <http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.18/Documentation/notation/displaying-rhythms#unmetered-music>
> .
>
> Also if I make the staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } the
> first time signature does vanish, but so do all time signatures everywhere,
> which is not intended.
>
> The attached image is a mockup of the intended score, made with Photoshop.
> Thanks in advance.
>
> <http://lilypond.1069038.n5.nabble.com/file/t5079/mockup.png> 

Doesn't seem that hard.  Probably your mistake was \omit TimeSignature
(which omits time signatures in the Voice context where nobody puts them
anyway).

For me, the following works:

\version "2.18.0"

\new Staff \with { \numericTimeSignature }
{
  \once \omit Staff.TimeSignature
  s1^\single \textLengthOn-\markup \italic "Unmetered Solo"
  \time 4/4
  \tempo Larghetto
  r1
  r1
}

-- 
David Kastrup