Effective way to notate triplets

Question

I was directed by America Luke to this forum site. I hope this is the correct place.

I have a score with a lot of triplets. It's awkward to write always \times 2/3 {c16 d e} \times 2/3 {d e f}.

Since the \times causes not only the duration scaling but also the bracket length you can't use

\times 2/3 {c16 d e   d e f}.

How can this done more efficiently.

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 18 '13 at 13:55

It's worth pointing out that as of LilyPond 2.17.11, you can write

\tuplet 3/2 8 {c16 d e d e f}

and get 3:2 tuplets in groups of duration 8 (in this case, two groups of three tuplets each). This is basically the same as temporarily overriding tupletSpannerDuration.

Dave · Answer 2 · 2013-11-15T15:29:40.533

7

I think that your problem isn't intrinsically with the triplets, but rather with controlling beams; one approach is to manually set the beams:

Running lilypond 2.16 on

{
\times 2/3 {c16^"Two 3-note phrases"  d e } \times 2/3 { d e f } r4 r2

\times 2/3 { c16^"Manual Beaming" [d e] d [e f] } r4 r2

\set tupletSpannerDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1 8)
\times 2/3 { c16^"Moment & Manual Beaming" [d e] d [e f] } r4 r2

}

yields this lilypond output

The square brackets in the lilypond file indicate the beams in the same manner as parentheses indicate slurs.

edited Nov 15 '13 at 15:29

answered Nov 06 '13 at 15:01

Dave

17,721
8
59
96

Cool! Question: shouldn't the "one six note phrase" really have a "6" over it to indicate the number of notes in one beat? – Carl Witthoft Nov 06 '13 at 15:36
Yeah, the "six note prhase" looks odd, and possibly ambiguous; c.f. (http://music.stackexchange.com/questions/12655/notating-6-or-more-triplets-with-a-single-bar) – Dave Nov 06 '13 at 15:55
Well, all your examples show some inadequate pictures. First (as my example) has correct brackets but wrong beaming. Second and third has a bracket over multiple triplets. I write a piece with triplet over several staves. (as at page 4 of http://javanese.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/5/50/IMSLP248772-PMLP403277-ETAHoffmann_Harp_Quintet_score.pdf) It's not a pleasure to find somewhere the bracket number instead about the triplet itself. Isn't there an effective way to write triplets. – harper Nov 07 '13 at 07:59
2

@CarlWitthoft use `\times 4/6` instead, and lilypond will even try to infer the best beaming as available. – SeuMenezes Nov 08 '13 at 05:03
Yes I know that I can start and stop the beams with []. But that isn't what I am looking for. Can't I tell Lilypond to write 100 triplets with _automatic_ beaming? – harper Nov 29 '13 at 10:11

score 7 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 14 '13 at 22:48

7

You have to specify the property tupletSpannerDuration to get several tuplets using only one \times command:

\set tupletSpannerDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1 8)
\times 2/3 {c16 d e d e f }

See LilyPond Documentation for more on this.

edited Nov 14 '13 at 22:48

NReilingh

34,804
6
102
169

answered Nov 14 '13 at 21:52

PeterBjuhr

458
2
6

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 06 '13 at 08:23

2

I think, there is no need to restrict the contents of one brace to 3 notes only, so for consecutive triplets, as in your example, a minor compression can be:

\times 2/3 {c16 d e d e f}

answered Nov 06 '13 at 08:23

guidot

10,215
1
21
51

Ok, since the OP claimed this fouls up the bracket length, can someone post the actual pdfs this code generates? – Carl Witthoft Nov 06 '13 at 13:26

Nicole Naumann · Answer 5 · 2020-10-08T21:47:41.473

1

A better looking grouping:

\relative c' {
  \override TupletBracket.bracket-visibility = #'if-no-beam
  \times 2/3 { c16 c \set stemRightBeamCount = #1 c }
  \times 2/3 { \set stemLeftBeamCount = #1 c c c }  
}

yields this:

edited Oct 08 '20 at 21:47

answered Oct 08 '20 at 21:41

Nicole Naumann

802
3
10

Effective way to notate triplets

5 Answers5