Re: Bar Numbers With Letters

[Kieren MacMillan]

Hi Steph,

Here’s a start on doing it directly:

%%%  SNIPPET BEGINS
\version "2.23.82"

music = \relative c' {
  \set Score.currentBarNumber = #46
  \override Score.BarNumber.break-visibility = ##(#t #t #t)
  c4 d e f
  c4 d e f |
  \set Score.currentBarNumber = #48
  c4 d e f |
  \temporary \override Score.BarNumber.stencil =
   #(lambda (grob)
     (let ((text (ly:grob-property grob 'text)))
      (grob-interpret-markup grob
       #{ \markup \concat { #text "A" } #})))
  \set Score.currentBarNumber = #48
  c4 d e f
  \set Score.currentBarNumber = #48
  c4 d e f
  \set Score.currentBarNumber = #48
  c4 d e f
  \revert Score.BarNumber.stencil
  c4 d e f
  c1 \bar "|."
}

{ \music }
%%%  SNIPPET ENDS

Obviously you’ll want to figure out how to get the letters to increment while 
the numbers aren’t incrementing, and wrap it all in a music function so you can 
simply write

%%%  SNIPPET BEGINS
\version "2.23.82"

alternativeBarNumbers = …

music = \relative c' {
  […]
  c4 d e f
  \alternativeBarNumbers
  c4 d e f
  c4 d e f
  c4 d e f
  \undo \alternativeBarNumbers
  c4 d e f
  c1 \bar "|."
}

{ \music }
%%%  SNIPPET ENDS

or similar.

Hope that helps!
Kieren.

> On Dec 24, 2024, at 7:50 AM, Kieren MacMillan <kieren@kierenmacmillan.info> 
> wrote:
> 
> Hi Steph,
> 
>> I'm looking for how to set some bar numbers in my score to have letters. 
>> For example: 
>> 46, 47, 48, 48A, 48B, 48C, 49, etc...
>> I've been looking at the documentation and I see how to achieve this for 
>> \repeat'ed bars, but this is just sequential music and so the example in the 
>> documentation doesn't really apply here.
> 
> Well, you could always abuse repeats…  ;)
> 
> %%%  SNIPPET BEGINS
> \version "2.23.82"
> 
> music = \relative c' {
>  \override Score.BarNumber.break-visibility = ##(#t #t #t)
>  \set Score.alternativeNumberingStyle = #'numbers-with-letters
>  \set Score.currentBarNumber = #46
>  c4 d e f |
>  c4 d e f
>  %%  temporarily suppress VoltaBracket
>  \temporary \omit Score.VoltaBracket
>  \repeat volta 4 {
>    %%  override the default repeat-begin barline
>    \bar "|"
>    %%  here’s the un-lettered measure
>    c4 d e f |
>    %%  rewind bar number!
>    \set Score.currentBarNumber = #48
>    %%  abuse alternatives to generate lettered measures
>    \alternative {
>      \volta 1 { c4 d e f \bar "|" }
>      \volta 2 { d4 e f g \bar "|" }
>      \volta 3 { e4 f g a \bar "|" }
>  }}
>  %%  reset so subsequent repeats display as expected
>  \undo \omit Score.VoltaBracket
>  c1 \bar "|."
> }
> 
> { \music }
> %%%  SNIPPET ENDS
> 
> I’m sure there’s a way by just overriding regular measure numbers — I just 
> wanted to see if I could do it this way! LOL
> 
> Hope that helps,
> Kieren.
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