<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<!-- header_tag -->
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>On the un-nestedness of brackets and ties - GNU LilyPond Learning Manual</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<meta name="description" content="GNU LilyPond Learning Manual">
<meta name="generator" content="makeinfo 4.11">
<link title="Top" rel="start" href="index.html#Top">
<link rel="up" href="How-LilyPond-input-files-work.html#How-LilyPond-input-files-work" title="How LilyPond input files work">
<link rel="prev" href="Nesting-music-expressions.html#Nesting-music-expressions" title="Nesting music expressions">
<link href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/" rel="generator-home" title="Texinfo Homepage">
<!--
Copyright (C) 1999--2007 by the authors
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License,
Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software
Foundation; with no Invariant Sections. A copy of the license is
included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
License''.
-->
<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css">
<style type="text/css"><!--
pre.display { font-family:inherit }
pre.format { font-family:inherit }
pre.smalldisplay { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller }
pre.smallformat { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller }
pre.smallexample { font-size:smaller }
pre.smalllisp { font-size:smaller }
span.sc { font-variant:small-caps }
span.roman { font-family:serif; font-weight:normal; }
span.sansserif { font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal; }
hr { border:0; height:1; color: #000000; background-color: #000000; }
/* hr {
border: none;
height: 1px;
color: #666666;
background-color: #666666;
}
body {
border-left: 1px solid #666666;
border-right: 1px solid #666666;
color: #332d28;
margin-right: auto;
margin-left: auto;
width: 60em;
list-style-type: square;
font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;
padding-right: 1em;
padding-left: 1em;
}
a {
border-bottom: 1px dashed #344242;
text-decoration: none;
color: #344242;
}
a:link {
text-decoration: none;
}
a:visited {
border-bottom: 1px dashed #666666;
color: #666666;
}
a:active {
border-bottom: 1px solid #00cccc;
color: #00cccc;
}
a:hover {
border-bottom: 1px solid #1d7b85;
color: #1d7b85;
}
blockquote {
border: 1px solid #cccccc;
padding: 3px;
width: 40em;
}
.node {
border-left: 1px solid #666666;
margin: -0.5em 0px 1em;
padding: 2px 1px 0px;
font-style: italic;
}
.node a {
border: none;
text-decoration: underline;
font-style: normal;
font-weight: bold;
}
.verbatim {
font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;
}
.unnumberedsubsubsec {
font-size: large;
color: #1d7b85;
}
.subsubheading {
font-size: large;
color: #3b220d;
}
.contents {
border: 1px dashed #339999;
margin: 3px 2em;
list-style-type: square;
padding-right: 1em;
width: 40em;
background-color: #fcfff9;
}
.contents a {
border-bottom: 1px dashed #423d34;
text-decoration: none;
color: #423d34;
}
.contents a:visited {
border-bottom: 1px dashed #666666;
color: #666666;
}
.contents a:active {
border-bottom: 1px solid #f0d86d;
color: #f0d86d;
}
.contents a:hover {
border-bottom: 1px solid #3b220d;
color: #3b220d;
}
.menu {
border-left: 1px dashed #339999;
margin: 3px 2em 1em;
list-style-type: square;
padding-left: 1.4em;
width: 40em;
}
.unnumbered {
}
h2 {
font-size: x-large;
color: #1d7b85;
}
*/
--></style>
</head>
<BODY BGCOLOR=WHITE TEXT=BLACK>
<div class="node">
<p>
<a name="On-the-un-nestedness-of-brackets-and-ties"></a>
<a name="On-the-un_002dnestedness-of-brackets-and-ties"></a>
Previous: <a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="Nesting-music-expressions.html#Nesting-music-expressions">Nesting music expressions</a>,
Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="How-LilyPond-input-files-work.html#How-LilyPond-input-files-work">How LilyPond input files work</a>
<hr>
</div>
<h4 class="subsection">3.1.4 On the un-nestedness of brackets and ties</h4>
<p><a name="index-brackets_002c-nesting-209"></a>
You have already met a number of different types of bracket in
writing the input file to LilyPond. These obey different rules
which can be confusing at first. Before we explain the rules
let's first review the different types of bracket.
<!-- attempt to force this onto a new page -->
<p><table summary=""><tr align="left"><th valign="top" width="30%">Bracket Type
</th><th valign="top" width="70%">Function
<br></th></tr><tr align="left"><td valign="top" width="30%"><code>{ .. }</code>
</td><td valign="top" width="70%">Encloses a sequential segment of music
<br></td></tr><tr align="left"><td valign="top" width="30%"><code>< .. ></code>
</td><td valign="top" width="70%">Encloses the notes of a chord
<br></td></tr><tr align="left"><td valign="top" width="30%"><code><< .. >></code>
</td><td valign="top" width="70%">Encloses simultaneous music expressions
<br></td></tr><tr align="left"><td valign="top" width="30%"><code>( .. )</code>
</td><td valign="top" width="70%">Marks the start and end of a slur
<br></td></tr><tr align="left"><td valign="top" width="30%"><code>\( .. \)</code>
</td><td valign="top" width="70%">Marks the start and end of a phrasing slur
<br></td></tr><tr align="left"><td valign="top" width="30%"><code>[ .. ]</code>
</td><td valign="top" width="70%">Marks the start and end of a manual beam
<br></td></tr></table>
<p>To these we should add other constructs which generate lines
between or across notes: ties (marked by a tilde, <code>~</code>),
tuplets written as <code>\times x/y {..}</code>, and grace notes
written as <code>\grace{..}</code>.
<p>Outside LilyPond, the conventional use of brackets requires
the different types to be properly nested, like this,
<code><< [ { ( .. ) } ] >></code>, with the closing brackets being
encountered in exactly the opposite order to the opening
brackets. This <strong>is</strong> a requirement for the three types of
bracket described by the word ‘Encloses’ in the table above –
they must nest properly.
However, the remaining brackets, described with the word
‘Marks’ in the table above together with ties and tuplets,
do <strong>not</strong> have to nest
properly with any of the brackets. In fact, these are not
brackets in the sense that
they enclose something – they are simply markers to indicate
where something starts and ends.
<p>So, for example, a phrasing slur can start before a manually
inserted beam and end before the end of the beam – not very
musical, perhaps, but possible:
<blockquote>
<pre class="verbatim">
{ g8\( a b[ c b\) a] }
</pre>
<p>
<a href="../c4/lily-da450a41.ly">
<img align="middle"
border="0" src="../c4/lily-da450a41.png" alt="[image of music]">
</a>
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In general, different kinds of brackets, and those implied by
tuplets, ties and grace notes, may be mixed freely.
This example shows a beam extending into a tuplet (line 1),
a slur extending into a tuplet (line 2),
a beam and a slur extending into a tuplet, a tie crossing
two tuplets, and a phrasing slur extending out of a tuplet
(lines 3 and 4).
<blockquote>
<pre class="verbatim">
{
r16[ g16 \times 2/3 {r16 e'8] }
g16( a \times 2/3 {b d) e' }
g8[( a \times 2/3 {b d') e'~]}
\times 4/5 {e'32\( a b d' e'} a'4.\)
}
</pre>
<p>
<a href="../c6/lily-f016ea03.ly">
<img align="middle"
border="0" src="../c6/lily-f016ea03.png" alt="[image of music]">
</a>
</p>
</blockquote>
<!-- footer_tag --><br><hr>
<div class="node">
<p>
<a name="On-the-un_002dnestedness-of-brackets-and-ties"></a>
Previous: <a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="Nesting-music-expressions.html#Nesting-music-expressions">Nesting music expressions</a>,
Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="How-LilyPond-input-files-work.html#How-LilyPond-input-files-work">How LilyPond input files work</a>
</div>
<div style="background-color: #e8ffe8; padding: 2; border: #c0ffc0 1px solid;">
<p>
<font size="-1">
This page is for LilyPond-2.11.57 (development-branch).
<br>
<address>
Report errors to <a href="http://post.gmane.org/post.php?group=gmane.comp.gnu.lilypond.bugs">http://post.gmane.org/post.php?group=gmane.comp.gnu.lilypond.bugs</a>. </address>
<br>
Your <a href="http://lilypond.org/web/devel/participating/documentation-adding">suggestions for the documentation</a> are welcome.
</font>
</p>
</div>
<P>
Other languages: <a href="On-the-un_002dnestedness-of-brackets-and-ties.fr.html">français</a>, <a href="On-the-un_002dnestedness-of-brackets-and-ties.es.html">español</a>, <a href="On-the-un_002dnestedness-of-brackets-and-ties.de.html">deutsch</a>.
<BR>
</P>
</BODY></html>
