lilypond-learning: On the un-nestedness of brackets and ties
3.1.4 On the un-nestedness of brackets and ties
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You have already met a number of different types of bracket and
bracket-like constructs in writing the input file to LilyPond. These
obey different rules which can be confusing at first. Let’s first
review the different types of brackets and bracket-like constructs.
Bracket Type Function
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‘{ ... }’ Encloses a sequential segment of music
‘< ... >’ Encloses the notes of a chord
‘<< ... >>’ Encloses simultaneous music expressions
‘( ... )’ Marks the start and end of a slur
‘\( ... \)’ Marks the start and end of a phrasing slur
‘[ ... ]’ Marks the start and end of a manual beam
To these we should add other constructs which generate lines between
or across notes: ties (marked by a tilde, ‘~’), tuplets written as
‘\tuplet x/y { ... }’, and grace notes written as ‘\grace { ... }’.
Outside LilyPond, the conventional use of brackets requires the
different types to be properly nested, like this, ‘<< [ { ( ... ) } ]
>>’, with the closing brackets being encountered in exactly the opposite
order to the opening brackets. This *is* a requirement for the three
types of bracket described by the word ‘Encloses’ in the table above –
they must nest properly. However, the remaining bracket-like
constructs, described with the word ‘Marks’ in the table above together
with ties and tuplets, do *not* have to nest properly with any of the
brackets or bracket-like constructs. In fact, these are not brackets in
the sense that they enclose something – they are simply markers to
indicate where something starts and ends.
So, for example, a phrasing slur can start before a manually inserted
beam and end before the end of the beam – not very musical, perhaps, but
possible:
g8\( a b[ c b\) a] g4
[image src="" alt="[image of music]" text="image of music" ]
In general, different kinds of brackets, bracket-like constructs, and
those implied by tuplets, ties and grace notes, may be mixed freely.
This example shows a beam extending into a tuplet (line 1), a slur
extending into a tuplet (line 2), a beam and a slur extending into a
tuplet, a tie crossing two tuplets, and a phrasing slur extending out of
a tuplet (lines 3 and 4).
r16[ g \tuplet 3/2 { r16 e'8] }
g,16( a \tuplet 3/2 { b16 d) e }
g,8[( a \tuplet 3/2 { b8 d) e~] } |
\tuplet 5/4 { e32\( a, b d e } a4.\)
[image src="" alt="[image of music]" text="image of music" ]
Info Catalog
lilypond-learning: Nesting music expressions
lilypond-learning: How LilyPond input files work