[GLISS] expressing "sustained arpeggios"

[Janek Warchoł]

Hi,

here's something that i find very inconvenient to express in Lily
syntax.  I'm not sure about proper name for this, so just look at the
attachment.

As far as i know, to achieve this notation with LilyPond, i have to write this:

\new Staff <<
  \mergeDifferentlyDottedOn
  \new Voice { \voiceOne f'16 g' a' b' }
  \new Voice { \voiceTwo f'4 }
  \new Voice { \voiceTwo s16 g'8. }
  \new Voice { \voiceTwo s8 a'8 }
>>

In my opinion this is very inconvenient and takes up way too much space.

Maybe there is a better way of writing this which i missed?
Notice that this

\new Staff <<
  \mergeDifferentlyDottedOn
  \new Voice { \voiceOne f'16 g' a' b' }
  \new Voice { \voiceTwo f'4*1/4 g'8.*1/3 a'8*1/2 }
>>

doesn't do what i need, since it will produce wrong midi; also, it's
still quite long.

I'd like to write this in a more compact way.  What do you propose?

My idea of what the syntax for this *might* look like (read: here's
what i'd find intuitive as a user) would be to use tilde with a number
(disclaimer: i don't imply any technical/internal association with The
Tie.  It's just visual similarity which i find appropriate for
concepts that seem related, at least to me).

So, maybe something like this:

{ f'16~4 g'16~8. a'16~8 b'16 }

could be used to express the musical meaning of this:

"there's an f note that lasts for a quarter note, but rhythmically
it's just a 16th, then there's g "sixteenth" note that lasts for a
dotted eight, then a note which lasts for an eight and finally
sixteenth b".

Again, i have no idea whether it is technically feasible to have a
syntax like that.  It's just that i would find this - or something
similar - intuitive.

What's your opinion?  How would you do this?  Maybe there's no need
for new syntax constructs?

cheers,
Janek

sustained-arpeggio.png
Description: PNG image