The Putney (VT) Community Orchestra, under Cailin Mason, recently performed the Overture to Phedre by Massenet. In the viola part, there is a use of percent repeats that makes sense but is not supported by LilyPond and is not directly covered by either Gould ("Behind Bars:") or Read ("Music Notation"). My stand partner, James Bergin, helped me figure out the rationale behind the notation.
I no longer have access to the viola part, but here is the relevant section from the score :
The percent repeat used in the viola part looked like the repeats in the following section in the documentation.
LilyPond — Notation Reference v2.19.34 (development-branch).
"Patterns that are shorter than one measure but contain mixed durations use a double-percent symbol."
except that the percent repeat signs had three slanting lines. Read says, "Beats consisting of mixed values are abbreviated by using double slashes accompanied by two dots:" and then shows repeat signs like the above repeats (with a larger gap between signs), repeating a single beat consisting of an eighth note and two sixteenth notes. James pointed out that the repeat signs in The Overture to Phedre made sense if you took into consideration the facts that : 1) the repeats were of single beats; 2) the beats consisted of mixed values; and 3) the shortest duration was a thirty-second note (having three flags or beams).
I would like to suggest that we consider adding (at least) the capability of producing percent repeat signs with three bars. (I shall also suggest wider, more legible spacing between percent repeat signs as the default, but I shall do that in a separate email, to keep the threads separate.)
Thanks to all of you for your help, encouragement, and support!
I hope you have a Happy New Year,
Ralph
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