Next: , Previous: Multi measure rests, Up: Orchestral music



3.14.8 Automatic part combining

Automatic part combining is used to merge two parts of music onto a staff. It is aimed at typesetting orchestral scores. When the two parts are identical for a period of time, only one is shown. In places where the two parts differ, they are typeset as separate voices, and stem directions are set automatically. Also, solo and a due parts are identified and can be marked.

The syntax for part combining is

       \partcombine musicexpr1 musicexpr2

The music expressions will be interpreted as Voice contexts. If using relative octaves, \relative should be specified for both music expressions, i.e.

     \partcombine \relative ...  musicexpr1
       \relative ... musicexpr2

A \relative section that is outside of \partcombine has no effect on the pitches of musicexpr1 and musicexpr2.

The following example demonstrates the basic functionality of the part combiner: putting parts on one staff, and setting stem directions and polyphony

     \new Staff \partcombine
       \relative g' { g g a( b) c c r r }
       \relative g' { g g r4 r e e g g }

[image of music]

The first g appears only once, although it was specified twice (once in each part). Stem, slur and tie directions are set automatically, depending whether there is a solo or unisono. The first part (with context called one) always gets up stems, and `solo', while the second (called two) always gets down stems and `Solo II'.

If you just want the merging parts, and not the textual markings, you may set the property soloADue to false

     \new Staff <<
       \set Staff.soloADue = ##f
       \partcombine
         \relative g' { g a( b) r }
         \relative g' { g r4 r f }
     >>

[image of music]

See also

Program reference: PartCombineMusic, SoloOneEvent, and SoloTwoEvent, and UnisonoEvent.

Bugs

In soloADue mode, when the two voices play the same notes on and off, the part combiner may typeset a2 more than once in a measure.

\partcombine cannot be inside \times.

\partcombine cannot be inside \relative.

Internally, the \partcombine interprets both arguments as Voices named one and two, and then decides when the parts can be combined. Consequently, if the arguments switch to differently named Voice contexts, the events in those will be ignored.

Read comments on this page, or add one.

This page is for LilyPond-2.2.6 (stable-branch).

Report errors to <bug-lilypond@gnu.org>.