Re: Octave shifts in polyphonic setting

[Simon Albrecht]

On 25.09.2018 21:13, Jogchum Reitsma wrote:
> Hi,
>
> When entering a piece of music with some one-, some two- and some 
> three-voiced bars, quite often notes in previous bars go up or down an 
> octave, when entering new bars.
> Restoring this from the first bars affected by adding or deleting 
> apostrophes or comma's, sometimes lead again to side effects. Rather 
> frustrating...

In the repertoire that I normally typeset, relative mode is still the 
way to go, because small intervals prevail. I find that there are enough 
tools to make it manageable and diminish the nuisance:
1) Octave checks, as often as necessary. The beginning of each voice in 
a polyphonic construct is an obvious candidate, as are new entries after 
long rests. The more large intervals occur, the more octave checks. This 
is something I adjust as needed.
2) \resetRelativeOctave is an exceptionally useful command easily 
overlooked, especially in situations like you describe.
3) Use more individual \relative commands, i.e. move \relative as close 
to the music as possible.
<< \relative {} \\ \relative {} >>
is less error-prone than
\relative { … << {} \\ {} >> … }.
Of course this isn’t practical in piano music where very many <<>> 
constructs are needed.
4) Don’t use lots of <<\\>> constructs, but instead something like
<<
  \new Voice {
    % oneVoice music
  }
  \new Voice {
    \voiceOne
    %…
  }
  \new Voice {
    \voiceTwo
    %…
  }
>>
along with copious spacer rests to bridge over the sections with other 
‘voicings’.
This requires quite some planning ahead and again isn’t applicable to 
every kind of music.

HTH, Simon