Re: Can lilypond do incipits?

[Margarethe Maierhofer-Lischka]

Hello there,

concerning incipits: at the moment I use an workaround-solution for this
that is also based on an adapted version of the snippet in the snippet
repo. I made up an "incipit template" file which contains the incipit´s
global settings and defines the contents of the single incipit lines
(instrument, ancient clef, pitch, text etc). This file I include into my
music file (both attached). Then it is enough to call \incipit and
\fooInstrumentIncipit in my music file in the \score block to generate
the incipit for the voice you want it to have. The width of the incipit
bar is controlled by the incipit-width parameter in the \layout block.
This workaround at least helps to keep the actual score file more simple
and separates the incipit content from the rest. Of course, it is no
perfect solution, but normally it works with some tweaking.
Concerning incipits in general:
> That being said, I'm sure it would be nice to have this music-function
> distributed within LilyPond, I do, however, wonder if it is
> standardized enough. (Neil just rejected a patch of my mine, and
> rightly so, because it used a stencil override and therefore could not
> be tweaked by the user.)
>   
Yes, incipits ARE a standard requirement for modern critical and
source-based editions! If lilypond offered an convenient way to create
incipits and use common editorial markings (such as are dotted or
bracketed slurs, bracketed or small-printed accidentals, footnotes or
comments...), this would hopefully encourage more professional editions
and musicologists to use lilypond.
In the documentation there are some things TBC in the section "working
with ancient music", not only concerning incipits but also editorial
markings. It would be great to have some more information there, at
least some hint or workaround. Is there any group out there that is
maybe working on this?
Greetings,
Margarethe

incipit-template.ly
Description: Text Data

incipit-plain.ly
Description: Text Data