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The time signature is set with the \time
command:
\time 2/4 c2 \time 3/4 c2.
The symbol that is printed can be customized with the style
property. Setting it to #'()
uses fraction style for 4/4
and 2/2 time,
\time 4/4 c1 \time 2/2 c1 \override Staff.TimeSignature #'style = #'() \time 4/4 c1 \time 2/2 c1
A time signature symbol is normally printed whenever the time
signature changes. If this takes place at the end of a line a
warning time signature sign is printed at the end of the line and
again at the start of a new line. This default behaviour can be
modified by setting the value of the break-visibility
property. This takes three values which may be set to #t
or #f
to specify whether the corresponding time signature
is visible or not. The order of the three values is end of
line visible
, middle of line visible
, beginning of
line visible
.
% Do not print any time signatures at end of line \override Staff.TimeSignature #'break-visibility = ##(#f #t #t) \time 4/4 c1 \time 3/4 c2. % Do not print the following 9/8 time signature \once \override Staff.TimeSignature #'break-visibility = ##(#t #f #t) \time 9/8 c4. c c \time 2/2 c1 \break \time 9/8 c4. c c \time 12/8 c2. c2.
There are many more options for its layout. See Ancient time signatures, for more examples.
\time
sets the properties timeSignatureFraction
,
beatLength
, and measureLength
in the Timing
context, which is normally aliased to Score. The
property measureLength
determines where bar lines should be
inserted, and how automatic beams should be generated. Changing
the value of timeSignatureFraction
also causes the symbol
to be printed.
More options are available through the Scheme function
set-time-signature
, which takes three arguments: the number
of beats, the beat length, and the internal grouping of beats in
the measure. If the Measure_grouping_engraver is
included, the function will also create
MeasureGrouping signs. Such signs ease reading
rhythmically complex modern music. In the following example, the
9/8 measure is subdivided in 2, 2, 2 and 3. This is passed to
set-time-signature
as the third argument (2 2 2 3)
:
\score { \relative c'' { #(set-time-signature 9 8 '(2 2 2 3)) g8[ g] d[ d] g[ g] a8[( bes g]) | #(set-time-signature 5 8 '(3 2)) a4. g4 } \layout { \context { \Staff \consists "Measure_grouping_engraver" } } }
Snippets: Rhythms
Internals Reference: TimeSignature, and Timing_translator.
Examples:
Automatic beaming does not use the measure grouping specified with
set-time-signature
.
Next: Upbeats, Up: Displaying rhythms
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