Re: Short ottava ambiguity

[Phil Holmes]

"Simon Albrecht" <address@hidden> wrote in message 
news:address@hidden
> Hello,
>
> as a followup to the ly-user thread on ottavation bracket/fermata
> stacking I noticed the following problem:
> By default, OttavaBracket has a minimum-length of 1 and the text is
> right-aligned to the first note in the range of the ottavation. Thus,
> it's sometimes impossible to discern from which note on the ottava is
> supposed to be applied. In short-ottava.ly (see attachment) the ottava
> applies to both notes, in short-ottava-2.ly only to the second note. Yet
> the output is identical.

I think it's difficult for LilyPond to "do the right thing" when using 8va 
as the ottavation mark, and only ottavating one note.  Gould almost 
exclusively uses 8 as the mark, and with sufficient space LilyPond follows 
her recommendation: see my recent comment on 3690.

A more extensive set of tests is below, and gives the attached image.

\version "2.18"
{
\ottava #1 e'''4 f'''
\ottava #0 e'' e'' R1
e''4 \ottava #1 f'''4
\ottava #0 e'' e'' R1
\ottava #1
\set Staff.ottavation = #"8"
e'''4 f'''
\ottava #0 e'' e'' R1
e''4 \ottava #1
\set Staff.ottavation = #"8"
f'''4
\ottava #0 e'' e''
e''4 \ottava #1
\set Staff.ottavation = #"8"
f'''4 e'' '
\ottava #0 e''
}

--
Phil Holmes

short-ottava-2.png
Description: PNG image