This page describes the visual aspects of scores involving braces, brackets, staff names and abbreviations, as well as group names and abbreviations.
Staff names
Staff names are given in tandem interpretations starting with the
string *I". The staff names are related to instrument
codes, such as *Icello for the violon cello. The staff names
are a visual description off the instrument or other text displayed
at the start of a movement, while instrument codes are for analysis
purposes. Giving a staff name will override the display of an
automatically generated name from an instrument code at the start
of the data (but automatic staff name generation from the instrument
code is not implemented yet).
Here is an example of a string quartet score, where each of the staff names are given (try changing the names in the text box on the left, and they will update as you type on the right):
Staff abbreviations
After the first system in a movement, the will be no instrument names displayed on successive
systems. An optional staff abbreviation can be given by prefixing *I' before the abbreviation
string for the staff.
System styling
Default styling
When the system contains only a single staff, no decoration is added to the system:
When the system contains two staves, a brace will automatically be added, and the staves will be barred together (although this should not be done if there are lyrics attached to the top staff).
When there are three or more staves, a bracket will automatically be added, but the staves will not be barred together.
System decoration
To override the default brace/bracket and barring styles, a line starting with !!!system-decoration: can
give a different style. To use this system, it is expected that all parts contain staff enumerations,
and these staff numbers are referenced in the system decoration string.
Here is an example for a string quartet, where the system decoration connects the bars on all staves together:
Staff wildcard
If you only need a single brace or bracket for the entire system, either barred or unbarred, then
you can use * to represent all staves.
Here is an example of removing the bracket, but keeping the barring:
Notice that parentheses around staves (or the wildcard symbol) will case the staves to be barred together.
Here is an example of removing the bracket as well as the barring:
Grand staff name
There are several methods for giving a label to the grand staff. The first method is
to add *part markers in each spine followed by matching non-zero integers.
Another method is to use group labels, which start with *I"",
rather than part labels, which start with *I". This also has to
be in coordination with *group markers indicating the staves that
should be grouped together:
Instrument class grouping
Instrument class tandem interpretations can be used in an equivalent manner to
*group# interpretations. Here is an example:
Undecorated grouping
Here is an example of giving no decoration to a group by using angle brackets (<>) in the
system decoration string: