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Grace notes are ornaments that are written out. Grace notes are printed in a smaller font and take up no logical time in a measure.
c4 \grace c16 c4 \grace { c16[ d16] } c2
Lilypond also supports two special types of grace notes, the acciaccatura–an unmeasured grace note indicated by a slurred small note with a slashed stem–and the appoggiatura, which takes a fixed fraction of the main note and appears in small print without a slash.
\grace c8 b4 \acciaccatura d8 c4 \appoggiatura e8 d4 \acciaccatura { g16[ f] } e4
The placement of grace notes is synchronized between different staves. In the following example, there are two sixteenth grace notes for every eighth grace note
<< \new Staff { e2 \grace { c16[ d e f] } e2 } \new Staff { c2 \grace { g8[ b] } c2 } >>
If you want to end a note with a grace, use the \afterGrace
command. It takes two arguments: the main note, and the grace
notes following the main note.
c1 \afterGrace d1 { c16[ d] } c1
This will put the grace notes after a space lasting 3/4 of the
length of the main note. The default fraction 3/4 can be changed by
setting afterGraceFraction
. The following example shows
the results from setting the space at the default, at 15/16, and
finally at 1/2 of the main note.
<< \new Staff { c1 \afterGrace d1 { c16[ d] } c1 } \new Staff { #(define afterGraceFraction (cons 15 16)) c1 \afterGrace d1 { c16[ d] } c1 } \new Staff { #(define afterGraceFraction (cons 1 2)) c1 \afterGrace d1 { c16[ d] } c1 } >>
The space between the main note and the grace note may also be specified using spacers. The following example places the grace note after a space lasting 7/8 of the main note.
\new Voice { << { d1^\trill_( } { s2 s4. \grace { c16[ d] } } >> c1) }
A \grace
music expression will introduce special
typesetting settings, for example, to produce smaller type, and
set directions. Hence, when introducing layout tweaks to
override the special settings, they should be placed inside
the grace expression. The overrides should also be reverted
inside the grace expression. Here, the grace note's default stem
direction is overriden and then reverted.
\new Voice { \acciaccatura { \stemDown f16-> \stemNeutral } g4 e c2 }
The slash through the stem found in acciaccaturas can be applied in other situations:
\relative c'' { \override Stem #'stroke-style = #"grace" c8( d2) e8( f4) }
The layout of grace expressions can be changed throughout the
music using the function add-grace-property
. The following
example undefines the Stem
direction for this grace, so
that stems do not always point up.
\relative c'' { \new Staff { #(add-grace-property 'Voice 'Stem 'direction ly:stem::calc-direction) #(remove-grace-property 'Voice 'Stem 'direction) \new Voice { \acciaccatura { f16 } g4 \grace { d16[ e] } f4 \appoggiatura { a,32[ b c d] } e2 } } }
Another option is to change the variables startGraceMusic
,
stopGraceMusic
, startAcciaccaturaMusic
,
stopAcciaccaturaMusic
, startAppoggiaturaMusic
,
stopAppoggiaturaMusic
. The default values of these can be
seen in the file ly/grace-init.ly
. By redefining
them other effects may be obtained.
Grace notes may be forced to align with regular notes in other staves:
\relative c'' { << \override Score.SpacingSpanner #'strict-grace-spacing = ##t \new Staff { c4 \afterGrace c4 { c16[ c8 c16] } c4 r } \new Staff { c16 c c c c c c c c4 r } >> }
Music Glossary: grace notes, acciaccatura, appoggiatura.
Installed Files: ly/grace-init.ly.
Snippets: Rhythms.
Internals Reference: GraceMusic.
A multi-note beamed acciaccatura is printed without a slash, and looks exactly the same as a multi-note beamed appoggiatura.
Grace note synchronization can also lead to surprises. Staff notation, such as key signatures, bar lines, etc., are also synchronized. Take care when you mix staves with grace notes and staves without, for example,
<< \new Staff { e4 \bar "|:" \grace c16 d2. } \new Staff { c4 \bar "|:" d2. } >>
This can be remedied by inserting grace skips of the corresponding durations in the other staves. For the above example
<< \new Staff { e4 \bar "|:" \grace c16 d2. } \new Staff { c4 \bar "|:" \grace s16 d2. } >>
Predefined commands, like \voiceOne
, which are intended to
change the behaviour of the notation after a grace note, may not
be effective if placed immediately before the grace note – they
should be placed after it.
Grace sections should only be used within sequential music expressions. Nesting or juxtaposing grace sections is not supported, and might produce crashes or other errors.
This page is for LilyPond-2.11.58 (development-branch).
Report errors to http://post.gmane.org/post.php?group=gmane.comp.gnu.lilypond.bugs.
Your suggestions for the documentation are welcome.