Re: Merging Rests in Single Staff with more than one 'voice'

[David Raleigh Arnold]

On Saturday 22 January 2011 12:52:54 James Lowe wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I don't often use multiple voices in a single staff, so am a bit
> unfamiliar and am still finding my way.

> However I cannot easily see how I can take two 'voices' each from a
> single source such that when they are combined on a single staff the
> rests that both voices share are only printed once.
> 
> For example
> 
> 
> \musicSourceOne = { a4 b c d | R1*4 | a4 r b r2 }
> \musicSourceTwo = { f4 r f r | R1*4 | f4 f g r2 }

Your example is very simple, so merging is good or at least not
bad. In single staff polyphony which is not very simple, merging
rests is a very bad idea because it ruins the integrity of the
voices and can create arresting ambiguities. It ought not to be a
candidate for default behavior with the notable exception of the
whole measure or multimeasure rest, which cannot easily be
misread. The problem is that only identical rests should be merged.
Not worth it, IMO. Easier to use "s1*4".

The centering of the whole measure rest sometimes helps prevent a
logjam at the beginning of a measure where there are many parts. That
is unusual but not rare. In those cases the ability to apply \multirest
placement ( c1\multirest ) would be useful, and it could also be used to
directly cover one rest with another. Already done? Sorry. It's hard to
keep up. :-) 

There is much single staff polyphonic notation education in
Carcassi op. 59. Download from Boije. I have it exploded into individual
pages on my site if you prefer. Regards, daveA

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