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The note heads of notes in different voices with the same pitch, same note head and opposite stem direction are automatically merged, but notes with different note heads or the same stem direction are not. Rests opposite a stem in a different voice are shifted vertically.
<< { c8 d e d c d c4 g'2 fis } \\ { c2 c8. b16 c4 e,2 r } \\ { \oneVoice s1 e8 a b c d2 } >>
Notes with different note heads may be merged, with the exception of half-note heads and quarter-note heads:
<< { \mergeDifferentlyHeadedOn c8 d e d c d c4 g'2 fis } \\ { c2 c8. b16 c4 e,2 r } \\ { \oneVoice s1 e8 a b c d2 } >>
Note heads with different dots may be merged:
<< { \mergeDifferentlyHeadedOn \mergeDifferentlyDottedOn c8 d e d c d c4 g'2 fis } \\ { c2 c8. b16 c4 e,2 r } \\ { \oneVoice s1 e8 a b c d2 } >>
The half note and eighth note at the start of the second measure
are incorrectly merged because \mergeDifferentlyHeadedOn
cannot successfully complete the merge when three or more notes
line up in the same column, and in this case a warning is given.
To allow the merge to work properly a \shift
must be applied
to the note that should not be merged. Here, \shiftOn
is
applied to move the top g out of the column, and
\mergeDifferentlyHeadedOn
then works properly.
<< { \mergeDifferentlyHeadedOn \mergeDifferentlyDottedOn c8 d e d c d c4 \shiftOn g'2 fis } \\ { c2 c8. b16 c4 e,2 r } \\ { \oneVoice s1 e8 a b c d2 } >>
The \shiftOn
, \shiftOnn
, and \shiftOnnn
commands specify the degree to which chords of the current voice
should be shifted. The outer voices (normally: voices one and
two) have \shiftOff
, while the inner voices (three and
four) have \shiftOn
. \shiftOnn
and
\shiftOnnn
define further shift levels.
Notes are only merged if they have opposing stem directions (e.g. in
Voice
1 and 2).
\mergeDifferentlyDottedOn
,
\mergeDifferentlyDottedOff
,
\mergeDifferentlyHeadedOn
,
\mergeDifferentlyHeadedOff
.
\shiftOn
,
\shiftOnn
,
\shiftOnnn
,
\shiftOff
.
Additional voices to avoid collisions
In some instances of complex polyphonic music, additional voices are
necessary to prevent collisions between notes. If more than four
parallel voices are needed, additional voices can be added by defining
a variable using the Scheme function context-spec-music
.
voiceFive = #(context-spec-music (make-voice-props-set 4) 'Voice) \relative c'' { \time 3/4 \key d \minor \partial 2 << { \voiceOne a4. a8 e'4 e4. e8 f4 d4. c8 } \\ { \voiceThree f,2 bes4 a2 a4 s2 } \\ { \voiceFive s2 g4 g2 f4 f2 } \\ { \voiceTwo d2 d4 cis2 d4 bes2 } >> }
Forcing horizontal shift of notes
When the typesetting engine cannot cope, the following syntax can be used to override typesetting decisions. The units of measure used here are staff spaces.
\relative c' << { <d g>2 <d g> } \\ { <b f'>2 \once \override NoteColumn #'force-hshift = #1.7 <b f'>2 } >>
Music Glossary: polyphony.
Learning Manual: Multiple notes at once, Voices contain music, Collisions of objects.
Snippets: Simultaneous notes.
Internals Reference: NoteColumn, NoteCollision, RestCollision.
When using \mergeDifferentlyHeadedOn
with an upstem eighth
or a shorter note, and a downstem half note, the eighth note stem
gets a slightly wrong offset because of the different width of the
half note head symbol.
There is no support for chords where the same note occurs with different accidentals in the same chord. In this case, it is recommended to use enharmonic transcription, or to use special cluster notation (see Clusters).