Polymetric notation - GNU LilyPond
Description: GNU LilyPond

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#### 8.4.1 Polymetric notation

Double time signatures are not supported explicitly, but they can be faked. In the next example, the markup for the time signature is created with a markup text. This markup text is inserted in the TimeSignature grob. See also `input/test/compound-time.ly`).

    % create 2/4 + 5/8
    tsMarkup =\markup {
      \override #'(baseline-skip . 2) \number {
        \column { "2" "4" }
        \lower #1 "+"
        \bracket \column { "5" "8" }
      }
    }

    {
      \override Staff.TimeSignature #'stencil = #ly:text-interface::print
      \override Staff.TimeSignature #'text = #tsMarkup
      \time 3/2
      c'2 \bar ":" c'4 c'4.
    }

Each staff can also have its own time signature. This is done by moving the Timing_translator to the Staff context.

    \layout {
      \context { \Score
         \remove "Timing_translator"
         \remove "Default_bar_line_engraver"
      }
      \context {
        \Staff
        \consists "Timing_translator"
        \consists "Default_bar_line_engraver"
      }

    }

Now, each staff has its own time signature.

    <<
      \new Staff {
        \time 3/4
        c4 c c | c c c |
      }
      \new Staff {
        \time 2/4
        c4 c | c c | c c
      }
      \new Staff {
        \time 3/8
        c4. c8 c c c4. c8 c c
      }
    >>

A different form of polymetric notation is where note lengths have different values across staves.

This notation can be created by setting a common time signature for each staff but replacing it manually using `timeSignatureFraction` to the desired fraction. Then the printed durations in each staff are scaled to the common time signature. The latter is done with `\compressMusic`, which is used similar to `\times`, but does not create a tuplet bracket. The syntax is

    \compressMusic #'(numerator . denominator) musicexpr

In this example, music with the time signatures of 3/4, 9/8, and 10/8 are used in parallel. In the second staff, shown durations are multiplied by 2/3, so that 2/3 * 9/8 = 3/4, and in the third staff, shown durations are multiplied by 3/5, so that 3/5 * 10/8 = 3/4.

>          \relative c' { <<
>            \new Staff {
>              \time 3/4
>              c4 c c | c c c |
>            }
>            \new Staff {
>              \time 3/4
>              \set Staff.timeSignatureFraction = #'(9 . 8)
>              \compressMusic #'(2 . 3)
>                \repeat unfold 6 { c8[ c c] }
>            }
>            \new Staff {
>              \time 3/4
>              \set Staff.timeSignatureFraction = #'(10 . 8)
>              \compressMusic #'(3 . 5) {
>                \repeat unfold 2 { c8[ c c] }
>                \repeat unfold 2 { c8[ c] }
>                | c4. c4. \times 2/3 { c8 c c } c4
>              }
>            }
>          >> }

##### Bugs

When using different time signatures in parallel, the spacing is aligned vertically, but bar lines distort the regular spacing.

This page is for LilyPond-2.8.8 (stable-branch).

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