Hiding unused staffs??

[Guy Stalnaker]

All,

I'm writing a choral composition where there are varying numbers of 
voices in play at any one time. Starts out 4-voice SATB, then 6-voices 
(SAATBB), then 4 voices (TTBB), then 3 voices (SSA), then 6, then 8.

I know I can simply code 8 voices, assigning rests where voices don't 
sing. That's easy.

I know I can use the terrific method to remove empty staves if I do the 
above.

I know I can use \new Staff inside a polyphonic context.

Yet each of these methods has problems.

There can be empty staffs throughout the work. Or there can be empty 
staves that appear and then then vanish. Or a \new Staff starts halfway 
across the page (truly ugly).

Though the code gets ugly using the \new Staff method, is there an 
elegant way to get LP to align \new Staff always at the beginning of a line?

Or is there a different and better way to do as I describe.

Much thanks for any recommendations!

Guy

--
“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end 
of human existence.”
― Aristotle