I added a score to your file to make it pring something.
It generates a perfect PDF on my system. No extra space at the top or
bottom.
\version "2.22.0"
\header {
title = "24-5 Dec"
subtitle = "chaconne"
composer = "Jay Hamilton"
copyright = \markup { \tiny \override #'(baseline-skip . 0.5)
\center-column
{ "CC lic 2.5 some rights reserved Jay Hamilton 2021"
"see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/"
} }
}
#(ly:set-option 'delete-intermediate-files #t)
#(set-default-paper-size "letter" )
#(set-global-staff-size 20)
\score{
{c'4}
}
Carl