I’m trying to copy some music (chant) in which slurs are not indicated by bezier curves, but by changing the spacing between the notes (bringing them much closer together). Now, while I’ve been able to figure out how to get the visual look, I’m not happy with the interface at the moment, as it requires inserting extra commands into the music so to turn on and off the tight spacing. Furthermore, if I only have the tight spacing, then each note gets its own word when I start adding lyrics with \lyricsto. What I’d like to do, therefore, is high-jack the existing slur notation so that the source looks “normal” but then instead of the usual curve, my spacing changes are applied instead (or at least in addition to). Is there a way to accomplish this?
In the MWE below, \starttight and \endtight are my first pass attempts which apply the spacing, but don’t mark the notes as slurred (resulting in the words being applied wrong and messing up the spacing). \startslur and \endslur apply both my spacing and the usual slur, allowing the lyrics to be assigned right (and the spacing preserved properly when that happens), but also causing the normal bezier curve to show up. %%%%% MWE \version "2.19.84" % remove stems and auto bar lines chant = { \set Score.timing = ##f \omit Stem } starttight = { \newSpacingSection \override Score.SpacingSpanner.base-shortest-duration = #(ly:make-moment -2) } endtight = { \newSpacingSection \revert Score.SpacingSpanner.base-shortest-duration } startslur = #(define-music-function (note) (ly:music?) (set! (ly:music-property note 'articulations) (cons (make-music 'SlurEvent 'span-direction -1) (ly:music-property note 'articulations) ) ) (make-music 'SequentialMusic 'elements (list #{ \newSpacingSection \override Score.SpacingSpanner.base-shortest-duration = #(ly:make-moment -2) #} note ) ) ) endslur = #(define-music-function (note) (ly:music?) (set! (ly:music-property note 'articulations) (cons (make-music 'SlurEvent 'span-direction 1) (ly:music-property note 'articulations) ) ) (make-music 'SequentialMusic 'elements (list #{ \newSpacingSection \revert Score.SpacingSpanner.base-shortest-duration #} note ) ) ) music = { \chant a' g' a'( g') \starttight a' \endtight g' \startslur a' \endslur g' } words = \lyricmode { Some words to go under my notes } \displayMusic \music \new Staff << \new Voice = "mel" { \music } \new Lyrics \lyricsto "mel" { \words } >> ✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝✝ Fr. Samuel, OSB (R. Padraic Springuel) St. Anselm’s Abbey 4501 South Dakota Ave, NE Washington, DC, 20017 202-269-2300 (c) 202-853-7036 PAX ☧ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ