Incipits / spacing

[Stefan Waler]

Hi all,

about two years ago (I don't remember exactly), there was a discussion 
where I was involved and the outcome of which was a new approach for 
incipits in ancient music. To be clear, I paste the snippet I'm 
referring to at the bottom of this message.

At this time, nobody was able to bring a solution for a little flaw in 
this snippet, which was that the timing automatism between the staffs 
cannot be turned off and the notes/rests are placed at a position that 
is based on their duration.
This is kind of unfavourable, because it leads to a different picture 
than you would expect in mensural notation where voices are completely 
independent.

Thus, I would like to ask again if there is anybody has ideas, maybe 
based on newer lilypond version?

Thanks in advance!

Stefan




incipit =
#(define-music-function (parser location incipit-music) (ly:music?)
  #{
    \once \override Staff.InstrumentName #'self-alignment-X = #RIGHT
    \once \override Staff.InstrumentName #'self-alignment-Y = #UP
    \once \override Staff.InstrumentName #'Y-offset = #4
    \once \override Staff.InstrumentName #'padding = #0.3
    \once \override Staff.InstrumentName #'stencil =
    #(lambda (grob)
       (let* ((instrument-name (ly:grob-property grob 'long-text))
              (layout (ly:output-def-clone (ly:grob-layout grob)))
              (music (make-music 'SequentialMusic
                      'elements (list (make-music 'ContextSpeccedMusic
                                        'context-type 'MensuralStaff
                                        'element (make-music 'PropertySet
                                                   'symbol 'instrumentName
                                                   'value instrument-name))
                                      $incipit-music)))
              (score (ly:make-score music))
              (mm (ly:output-def-lookup layout 'mm))
              (indent (ly:output-def-lookup layout 'indent))
              (width (ly:output-def-lookup layout 'incipit-width))
              (incipit-width (if (number? width)
                                 (* width mm)
                                 (* indent 0.5))))
         (ly:output-def-set-variable! layout 'indent (- indent 
incipit-width))
         (ly:output-def-set-variable! layout 'line-width indent)
         (ly:output-def-set-variable! layout 'ragged-right #f)
         (ly:output-def-set-variable! layout 'ragged-last #f)
         (ly:output-def-set-variable! layout 'system-count 1)
         (ly:score-add-output-def! score layout)
         (set! (ly:grob-property grob 'long-text)
               (markup #:score score))
         (ly:system-start-text::print grob)))
  #})