lilypond-learning: Real music example
4.6.3 Real music example
------------------------
We end this section on Tweaks by showing the steps to be taken to deal
with a tricky example which needs several tweaks to produce the desired
output. The example has been deliberately chosen to illustrate the use
of the Notation Reference to resolve unusual problems with notation. It
is not representative of the more usual engraving process, so please do
not let these difficulties put you off! Fortunately, difficulties like
these are not very common!
The example is from Chopin’s Première Ballade, Op. 23, bars 6 to 9,
the transition from the opening Lento to Moderato. Here, first, is what
we want the output to look like, but to avoid over-complicating the
example too much we have left out the dynamics, fingering and pedalling.
[image src="" alt="[image of music]" text="image of music" ]
We note first that the right hand part in the third bar requires four
voices. These are the five beamed eighth notes, the tied C, the
half-note D which is merged with the eighth note D, and the dotted
quarter note F-sharp, which is also merged with the eighth note at the
same pitch. Everything else is in a single voice, so the easiest way is
to introduce these extra three voices temporarily at the time they are
needed. If you have forgotten how to do this, look at 
I'm hearing
Voices and Explicitly instantiating voices. Here we choose to
use explicitly instantiated voices for the polyphonic passage, as
LilyPond is better able to avoid collisions if all voices are
instantiated explicitly in this way.
So let us begin by entering the notes as two variables, setting up
the staff structure in a score block, and seeing what LilyPond produces
by default:
rhMusic = \relative c'' {
\new Voice {
r2 c4. g8 |
bes1~ |
\time 6/4
bes2. r8
% Start polyphonic section of four voices
<<
{ c,8 d fis bes a } % continuation of main voice
\new Voice {
\voiceTwo
c,8~ c2
}
\new Voice {
\voiceThree
s8 d2
}
\new Voice {
\voiceFour
s4 fis4.
}
>> |
g2. % continuation of main voice
}
}
lhMusic = \relative c' {
r2 <c g ees>2 |
<d g, d>1 |
r2. d,,4 r4 r |
r4
}
\score {
\new PianoStaff <<
\new Staff = "RH" <<
\key g \minor
\rhMusic
>>
\new Staff = "LH" <<
\key g \minor
\clef "bass"
\lhMusic
>>
>>
}
[image src="" alt="[image of music]" text="image of music" ]
All the notes are right, but the appearance is far from satisfactory.
The tie collides with the change in time signature, some notes are not
merged together, and several notation elements are missing. Let’s first
deal with the easier things. We can easily add the left hand slur and
the right hand phrasing slur, since these were all covered in the
Tutorial. Doing this gives:
rhMusic = \relative c'' {
\new Voice {
r2 c4.\( g8 |
bes1~ |
\time 6/4
bes2. r8
% Start polyphonic section of four voices
<<
{ c,8 d fis bes a } % continuation of main voice
\new Voice {
\voiceTwo
c,8~ c2
}
\new Voice {
\voiceThree
s8 d2
}
\new Voice {
\voiceFour
s4 fis4.
}
>> |
g2.\) % continuation of main voice
}
}
lhMusic = \relative c' {
r2 <c g ees>2( |
<d g, d>1) |
r2. d,,4 r4 r |
r4
}
\score {
\new PianoStaff <<
\new Staff = "RH" <<
\key g \minor
\rhMusic
>>
\new Staff = "LH" <<
\key g \minor
\clef "bass"
\lhMusic
>>
>>
}
[image src="" alt="[image of music]" text="image of music" ]
The first bar is now correct. The second bar contains an arpeggio
and is terminated by a double bar line. How do we do these, as they
have not been mentioned in this Learning Manual? This is where we need
to turn to the Notation Reference. Looking up ‘arpeggio’ and ‘bar line’
in the index quickly shows us that an arpeggio is produced by appending
‘\arpeggio’ to a chord, and a double bar line is produced by the ‘\bar
"||"’ command. That’s easily done. We next need to correct the
collision of the tie with the time signature. This is best done by
moving the tie upwards. Moving objects was covered earlier in
Moving objects, which says that objects positioned relative to the
staff can be moved vertically by overriding their ‘staff-position’
property, which is specified in half staff spaces relative to the center
line of the staff. So the following override placed just before the
first tied note would move the tie up to 3.5 half staff spaces above the
center line:
‘\once \override Tie.staff-position = #3.5’
This completes bar two, giving:
rhMusic = \relative c'' {
\new Voice {
r2 c4.\( g8 |
\once \override Tie.staff-position = #3.5
bes1~ |
\bar "||"
\time 6/4
bes2. r8
% Start polyphonic section of four voices
<<
{ c,8 d fis bes a } % continuation of main voice
\new Voice {
\voiceTwo
c,8~ c2
}
\new Voice {
\voiceThree
s8 d2
}
\new Voice {
\voiceFour
s4 fis4.
}
>> |
g2.\) % continuation of main voice
}
}
lhMusic = \relative c' {
r2 <c g ees>2( |
<d g, d>1)\arpeggio |
r2. d,,4 r4 r |
r4
}
\score {
\new PianoStaff <<
\new Staff = "RH" <<
\key g \minor
\rhMusic
>>
\new Staff = "LH" <<
\key g \minor
\clef "bass"
\lhMusic
>>
>>
}
[image src="" alt="[image of music]" text="image of music" ]
On to bar three and the start of the Moderato section. The tutorial
showed how to add bold text with the ‘\markup’ command, so adding
“Moderato” in bold is easy. But how do we merge notes in different
voices together? This is where we need to turn again to the Notation
Reference for help. A search for “merge” in the Notation Reference
index quickly leads us to the commands for merging differently headed
and differently dotted notes in (lilypond-notation)Collision
resolution. In our example we need to merge both types of note for
the duration of the polyphonic section in bar 3, so using the
information we find in the Notation Reference we add
\mergeDifferentlyHeadedOn
\mergeDifferentlyDottedOn
to the start of that section and
\mergeDifferentlyHeadedOff
\mergeDifferentlyDottedOff
to the end, giving:
[image src="" alt="[image of music]" text="image of music" ]
These overrides have merged the two F-sharp notes, but not the two on
D. Why not? The answer is there in the same section in the Notation
Reference – notes being merged must have stems in opposite directions
and two notes cannot be merged successfully if there is a third note in
the same note column. Here the two D’s both have upward stems and there
is a third note – the C. We know how to change the stem direction using
‘\stemDown’, and the Notation Reference also says how to move the C –
apply a shift using one of the ‘\shift’ commands. But which one? The C
is in voice two which has shift off, and the two D’s are in voices one
and three, which have shift off and shift on, respectively. So we have
to shift the C a further level still using ‘\shiftOnn’ to avoid it
interfering with the two D’s. Applying these changes gives:
rhMusic = \relative c'' {
\new Voice {
r2 c4.\( g8 |
\once \override Tie.staff-position = #3.5
bes1~ |
\bar "||"
\time 6/4
bes2.^\markup { \bold "Moderato" } r8
\mergeDifferentlyHeadedOn
\mergeDifferentlyDottedOn
% Start polyphonic section of four voices
<<
{ c,8 d fis bes a } % continuation of main voice
\new Voice {
\voiceTwo
% Move the c2 out of the main note column
% so the merge will work
c,8~ \shiftOnn c2
}
\new Voice {
\voiceThree
% Stem on the d2 must be down to permit merging
s8 \stemDown d2
}
\new Voice {
\voiceFour
s4 fis4.
}
>> |
\mergeDifferentlyHeadedOff
\mergeDifferentlyDottedOff
g2.\) % continuation of main voice
}
}
lhMusic = \relative c' {
r2 <c g ees>2( |
<d g, d>1)\arpeggio |
r2. d,,4 r4 r |
r4
}
\score {
\new PianoStaff <<
\new Staff = "RH" <<
\key g \minor
\rhMusic
>>
\new Staff = "LH" <<
\key g \minor
\clef "bass"
\lhMusic
>>
>>
}
[image src="" alt="[image of music]" text="image of music" ]
Nearly there. Only two problems remain: The downward stem on the
merged D should not be there, and the C would be better positioned to
the right of the D’s. We know how to do both of these from the earlier
tweaks: we make the stem transparent, and move the C with the
‘force-hshift’ property. Here’s the final result:
rhMusic = \relative c'' {
\new Voice {
r2 c4.\( g8 |
\once \override Tie.staff-position = #3.5
bes1~ |
\bar "||"
\time 6/4
bes2.^\markup { \bold "Moderato" } r8
\mergeDifferentlyHeadedOn
\mergeDifferentlyDottedOn
% Start polyphonic section of four voices
<<
{ c,8 d fis bes a } % continuation of main voice
\new Voice {
\voiceTwo
c,8~
% Reposition the c2 to the right of the merged note
\once \override NoteColumn.force-hshift = #1.0
% Move the c2 out of the main note column
% so the merge will work
\shiftOnn
c2
}
\new Voice {
\voiceThree
s8
% Stem on the d2 must be down to permit merging
\stemDown
% Stem on the d2 should be invisible
\tweak Stem.transparent ##t
d2
}
\new Voice {
\voiceFour
s4 fis4.
}
>> |
\mergeDifferentlyHeadedOff
\mergeDifferentlyDottedOff
g2.\) % continuation of main voice
}
}
lhMusic = \relative c' {
r2 <c g ees>2( |
<d g, d>1)\arpeggio |
r2. d,,4 r4 r |
r4
}
\score {
\new PianoStaff <<
\new Staff = "RH" <<
\key g \minor
\rhMusic
>>
\new Staff = "LH" <<
\key g \minor
\clef "bass"
\lhMusic
>>
>>
}
[image src="" alt="[image of music]" text="image of music" ]
Info Catalog
lilypond-learning: Fixing overlapping notation
lilypond-learning: Collisions of objects