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A ligature is a graphical symbol that represents at least two distinct notes. Ligatures originally appeared in the manuscripts of Gregorian chant notation to denote ascending or descending sequences of notes on the same syllable. They are also used in mensural notation.
Ligatures are entered by enclosing them in \[
and
\]
. Some ligature styles may need additional input syntax
specific for this particular type of ligature. By default, the
LigatureBracket engraver just puts a square bracket
above the ligature.
\transpose c c' { \[ g c a f d' \] a g f \[ e f a g \] }
Two other ligature styles are available: the Vaticana for
Gregorian chant, and the Mensural for mensural music (only white
mensural ligatures are supported for mensural music, and with
certain limitations). To use any of these styles, the default
Ligature_bracket_engraver
has to be replaced with one of the
specialized ligature engravers in the Voice context,
as explained in White mensural ligatures and Gregorian square neume ligatures.
Ligatures need special spacing that has not yet been implemented. As a result, there is too much space between ligatures most of the time, and line breaking often is unsatisfactory. Also, lyrics do not correctly align with ligatures.
Accidentals must not be printed within a ligature, but instead need to be collected and printed in front of it.
The syntax still uses the deprecated infix style \[ music expr
\]
. For consistency reasons, it will eventually be changed to
postfix style note\[ ... note\]
.