Re: Bar numbers as performed rather than as positioned on the page

[David Kastrup]

Vinny <address@hidden> writes:

> The rationale as to why the weird bar numbers in case you want some
> background and/or have a better idea:
>
>
> I'm part of a /taiko//percussion group that plays pieces composed for
> several instruments which always have repeats at different places and even
> of different lengths. The full score rarely gets to be written with volta
> brackets, segni or simile marks. But when writing the single-part scores —
> which we need, there's no way around that — it's the other way around:
> unfolding the repeats makes the score harder to read due to massively
> lengthy repetitions of the tiniest bits like { c8. a16 } or { c8 a } or {
> c16 a c a } or { c8 c16 a }, etc. We call them '/jiuchi/', or base rhythms.
> They're accompaniments for the '/ouchi/', or main rhythms. Single-part
> scores will often waste many pages on this stuff and become hard to use in
> rehearsal. 
> (Please note I'm using c and a as a means to convey percussion rather than
> melody — we have a rule of thumb for note placement on the staff. Yes, I'm
> aware of *DrumStaff* and *RhythmicStaff*; no, they don't work out well for
> the kind of notation we need to make with the sets of rules we need to
> follow as a /taiko/ group. I've already taken care of the necessary
> customizations on the regular *Staff*.)
>
>
> "Let's play from bar #154. For you it's bar #86 since you have that volta
> bracket on your staff; and for you guys back there it should be around
> #115-125 because of that DS on yours. I don't know the exact number; do the
> math or go check the full score. Should be around page 18, maybe 19. Go on,
> we'll all stand here just waiting."
>
> vs.
>
> "Let's play from bar #154."

Well, one obvious thing is to get used to percent repeats when
applicable.  They save quite a bit of space too and don't have the bar
number problem.

A programmatic approach with volta repeats would likely use an engraver
listening to alternative-event .  Those are generated in
scm/define-music-callbacks.scm in make-volta-set and do provide the
necessary information for fixing up the bar numbers.  This is not
exactly trivial programming though.

-- 
David Kastrup