Re: Crescendos and melismas break \partcombine?

[Karlin High]

On 8/23/2016 1:44 PM, David Wright wrote:
> Could you not put the dynamics in a separate context? That also
> has the advantage of allowing you to place them between the staves
> for the organist and above the stave for the singers (so as not to
> interfere with the lyrics).

That seems to fix it! I never used that technique before, and had to 
look it up:
http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.18/Documentation/notation/expressive-marks-attached-to-notes#dynamics 

All my projects are A Cappella works, so no concerns here about keyboard 
users and centering dynamics between staves.

> Mind you, I don't have a lot of experience here as I use the English
> style of hymnal, with tails up/down/up/down, as it's much clearer when
> the rhythms get more complex.

And some days, I wonder if that would be the way to go - odd voice stems 
up and even voice stems down, rather than battling \partcombine in all 
my projects. ("Okay folks, here's your new sheet music... What? Oh yes, 
the stems. This has about twice as many stems as what you are used to. 
Trust me, it is easier this way.") Maybe no one would notice. Or maybe 
they would LIKE it...

> What happens if you put the dynamics in only, say, the soprano part?

Dynamics in only one part also de-combines them. I started out that way, 
and moved towards keeping the parts as near-alike as possible so 
\partcombine would have fewer reasons to separate them. But the 
one-part-only melismas defeated that effort.

Thanks again! Updated example below, for future reference.
--
Karlin High
Missouri, USA

% BEGIN LILYPOND CODE
\version "2.18.2"
Soprano = \relative c' {
   e4 f g a b c d e
   e, f g a b8( d8) c4 d e
   e, f g a b8( d8) c4 d e
}

Alto = \relative c' {
   c4 d e f g a b c
   c, d e f g a b c
   c, d e f g a b c
}

% By having dynamics in a separate context,
% \partcombine will not be interrupted when a crescendo
% covers melismas that are not shared by both parts.
Dyn = {
  s4 s s \cresc s s s \f s s
  s s s \cresc s s s \f s s
  \repeat unfold 8 s4
}

\score {
  <<
  \new Staff = "sopranoalto" { << \partcombine \Soprano \Alto >> }
  \new Dynamics { \Dyn }
  >>
}
% END LILYPOND CODE