Re: Align above "current" staff

[Aaron Hill]

On 2020-09-27 7:35 pm, David Wright wrote:
> I'm not sure that it does produce clarity (as opposed to merely
> explaining the unreliability in perception). Would it not be
> clearer to put the ossia music inside a \relative{}, so that
> the main sequence of pitches carries through undisturbed, and
> the ossia has its correct octave specified within itself, locally.
>
> I always think it rather risky to put structure inside \relative{},
> rather than putting the \relative{}s inside the structure.

\relative is nothing more than a tool for a job.  Providing one 
understands how it works and can manage the sequencing of notes, it is 
not wrong nor unreliable to use at a top-level.  If it were either, then 
LilyPond should not accept such usage.

The original \ossia function flips the arguments so the ordering of 
notes behind the scenes as \relative sees them no longer matches the 
natural progression within the input file.  As such, argument order 
matters to accommodate folks who choose to use \relative at the higher 
level and maintain consistency with the existing precedent that parallel 
sections of music are processed in the order they occur within the 
source:

%%%%
\relative { 1st 2nd << { 3rd 4th } \\ { 5th 6th } >> 7th 8th }
%%%%

With the original \ossia function, one must follow this sequencing:

%%%%
\relative { 1st 2nd \ossia { 5th(!) 6th } { 3rd(!) 4th } 7th(!) 8th }
%%%%

That is three times the natural ordering is disturbed, so fixing the 
argument order definitely adds clarity.

Mind you, a user is always free to use \relative in a more localized 
scope:

%%%%
{
  \relative { 1st 2nd }
  \ossia \relative { 1st 2nd }
         \relative { 1st 2nd }
  \relative { 1st 2nd }
}
%%%%

But surely the music argument *nearest* the \ossia command should be the 
notes in the ossia itself, regardless of ones preference on using 
\relative.  The alternative seems madness:

%%%%
{
  music preceding
  \ossia { careful, these are not the notes for the ossia }
         { here, written *below* those notes in the source,
           are the notes that will appear *above* them. }
  music following
}
%%%%


-- Aaron Hill