Re: Document <> and improve other simultanous music documentation. (issue 6248080)

[Keith OHara]

On Sat, 02 Jun 2012 12:42:36 -0700, David Kastrup <address@hidden> wrote:

> if the next note starts with a dynamic, the "smorz." will merge into
> that dynamic which is not wanted for.

Presumably because the hairpin is a \> and the next note is \f in this case.  
Often, though, we do want a \> to continue into a \p.

Mostly I wanted to talk you out of this worry :

> It would seem that _trailing_ <> are not really something we should
> lightly suggest since it is unknown what their articulations will
> attach themselves to.

We can make it clear that <>\! attaches the end of the hairpin to the following 
note (or bar-line if there is no note) by saying ...

> "Keith OHara" <address@hidden> writes:
>
> > "... but can take articulations and notations,
> > which will be engraved as if they were attached to a note
> > starting at the musical moment of the empty chord."

So your use of <>\! gives the same output as if you ended the hairpin on the 
following note, c\!\f, and we already know that LilyPond aligns such a hairpin to the 
\f.

The empty chord does make it any easier to end crescendos just before the next note; 
for that we need parallel music, or grace timing, or whatever your \atLast does.  
Nevertheless, trailing <>\! or s1*0\! reduces my rate of forgetting to end 
decrescendos:

\relative c'{ \key e\major \time 3/4
   fis8(\> gis e2) s2.*0\!
   \bar"||" \key g\major
   \barNumberCheck#2
   R2.*8
   d'2.\p ~ | d2. }