Next: Scaling durations, Previous: Durations, Up: Writing rhythms
Tuplets are made out of a music expression by multiplying all durations with a fraction:
\times fraction musicexpr
The duration of musicexpr will be multiplied by the fraction. The fraction's denominator will be printed over or under the notes, optionally with a bracket. The most common tuplet is the triplet in which 3 notes have the length of 2, so the notes are 2/3 of their written length.
a2 \times 2/3 {b4 b b} c4 c \times 2/3 {b4 a g}
Tuplets may be nested:
\relative c'' { \autoBeamOff c4 \times 4/5 { f8 e f \times 2/3 {e[ f g] } } f4 | }
\tupletUp
,
\tupletDown
,
\tupletNeutral
.
For more information about make-moment
, see
Time administration.
By default, only the numerator of the tuplet number
is printed over the tuplet bracket, i.e. the denominator
of the argument to the \times
command. Alternatively,
num:den of the tuplet number may be printed, or
the tuplet number may be suppressed altogether.
\times 2/3 { c8 c c } \times 2/3 { c8 c c } \override TupletNumber #'text = #tuplet-number::calc-fraction-text \times 2/3 { c8 c c } \override TupletNumber #'transparent = ##t \times 2/3 { c8 c c }
Tuplets may extend over bar lines, but they will inhibit a
line break unless the Forbid_line_break_engraver
is
removed from the Voice context
.
If nested tuplets do not begin at the same moment their
appearance may be modified in the usual way with
\override
commands:
\times 2/3 { c8[ c c]} \once \override TupletNumber #'text = #tuplet-number::calc-fraction-text \times 2/3 { c[ c] c[ c] \once \override TupletNumber #'transparent = ##t \times 2/3 { c8[ c c] } \times 2/3 { c8[ c c]} }
However, if the nested tuplets begin at the same musical moment,
\override
commands cannot be applied to just one of them
– they apply to both. So to change the appearance of nested
tuplets beginning at the same musical moment individually, the
\tweak
function must be used (see Objects connected to the input). The \tweak
function is applied to the
following \times
command as it appears in the input stream,
and so can distinguish between separate \times
commands
even if their tuplets begin at the same musical moment.
In this example, the \tweak
command is used to specify
fraction text for the outer TupletNumber
and denominator
text for the TupletNumber
of the first of the three
inner tuplets.
\tweak #'text #tuplet-number::calc-fraction-text \times 4/3 { \tweak #'text #tuplet-number::calc-denominator-text \times 2/3 { c8[ c8 c8] } \times 2/3 { c8[ c8 c8] } \times 2/3 { c8[ c8 c8] } }
In the next example, \tweak
and \override
work
together to specify TupletBracket
direction. The first
\tweak
positions the TupletBracket
of the outer
tuplet above the staff. The second \tweak
positions the
TupletBracket
of the first of the three inner tuplets below
the staff. Note that the \tweak
command needs to be used
only for events that begin at the same music moment: the outer
tuplet and the first of the three inner tuplets. To position the
TupletBracket
s of the second and third of the inner tuplets
below the staff, we can use \override
in the usual way.
\tweak #'text #tuplet-number::calc-fraction-text \tweak #'direction #up \times 4/3 { \tweak #'direction #down \times 2/3 { c8[ c8 c8] } \override TupletBracket #'direction = #down \times 2/3 { c8[ c8 c8] } \times 2/3 { c8[ c8 c8] } }
Tuplet brackets can be made to run to prefatory matter or the next note. Default tuplet brackets end at the right edge of the final note of the tuplet; full-length tuplet brackets extend farther to the right, either to cover all the non-rhythmic notation up to the following note, or to cover only the whitespace before the next item of notation, be that a clef, time signature, key signature, or another note. The example shows how to switch tuplets to full length mode and how to modify what material they cover.
\new RhythmicStaff { % Set tuplets to be extendable .. \set tupletFullLength = ##t % .. to cover all items up to the next note \set tupletFullLengthNote = ##t \time 2/4 \times 2/3 { c4 c c } % .. or to cover just whitespace \set tupletFullLengthNote = ##f \time 4/4 \times 4/5 { c4 c1 } \time 3/4 c4 }
\compressMusic
works similarly to \times, but does not
create a tuplet bracket. One application is in polymetric
notation, as shown in the following example. See
Polymetric notation.
Music Glossary: triplet, tuplet, polymetric.
Notation Reference: Time administration, Objects connected to the input, Polymetric notation.
Snippets: Rhythms .
Internals Reference: TupletBracket, TupletNumber, TimeScaledMusic.
Lines may be broken within a tuplet with \bar "" \break
,
but the tuplet bracket does not correctly carry over.
Next: Scaling durations, Previous: Durations, Up: Writing rhythms
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