Issue 1308 in lilypond: Enhancement: shortcut syntax for melismas

[lilypond]

Status: Accepted
Owner: ----
Labels: Type-Enhancement Priority-Postponed Syntax

New issue 1308 by v.villenave: Enhancement: shortcut syntax for melismas
http://code.google.com/p/lilypond/issues/detail?id=1308

This proposal was made by Russ Ross on bug-lilypond a while back:
http://old.nabble.com/feature-request%3A-syntax-for-vocal-music-to-simplify-autobeaming-and-melisma-settings-ts27446985.html

"""
When setting vocal music, auto beaming is normally off, except during  
melisma.
I find myself constantly writing:

 \autoBeamOn <A>\melisma ... <B>\melismaEnd\autoBeamOff

This is quite cumbersome, so much so that I normally write it like this  
instead:

 <A>[[ ... <B>]]

and run a perl script to pre-process it with these regexps:

 s/([^ ]+)\[\[/\\autoBeamOn $1\\melisma/g;
 s/\]\]([^ ]*)/$1\\melismaEnd \\autoBeamOff/g;

I would like to request that this be added to the basic syntax rules.

The \autoBeamOn command comes before the first note of the melisma, but in  
my notation it trails it to be more consistent with the "[" manual beaming
notation, and with other grouping rules likes slurs.

I realize that syntax changes must be approach with caution to avoid  
clutter, but this is a pretty fundamental part of vocal score preparation,  
and it is a pretty standard rule for typesetting vocal music.  It does not  
conflict with existing syntax rules (to my knowledge anyway).  It would  
also be (less) useful for instrumental parts as a way to control auto  
beaming, in which case turning melisma settings on and off would be  
harmless.

A double bracket is simple and suggests beaming control, just as the single  
bracket notation controls manual beaming.
"