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One or more music expressions enclosed in double angle brackets are taken to be simultaneous. If the first expression begins with a single note or if the whole simultaneous expression appears explicitly within a single voice, the whole expression is placed on a single staff; otherwise the elements of the simultaneous expression are placed on separate staves.
The following examples show simultaneous expressions on one staff:
\new Voice { % explicit single voice << {a4 b g2} {d4 g c,2} >> }
% single first note a << {a4 b g} {d4 g c,} >>
This can be useful if the simultaneous sections have identical rhythms, but attempts to attach notes with different durations to the same stem will cause errors.
The following example shows how simultaneous expressions can generate multiple staves implicitly:
% no single first note << {a4 b g2} {d4 g2 c,4} >>
Here different rhythms cause no problems.