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Creating contexts

Contexts for a music expression can be selected manually, using one of the following music expressions:

     \new contexttype musicexpr
     \context contexttype [= contextname] musicexpr
     

This means that musicexpr should be interpreted within a context of type contexttype (with name contextname if specified). If no such context exists, it will be created:

     \score {
       \notes \relative c'' {
         c4 <<d4 \context Staff = "another" e4>> f
       }
     }
     

[picture of music]

In this example, the c and d are printed on the default staff. For the e, a context Staff called another is specified; since that does not exist, a new context is created. Within another, a (default) Voice context is created for the e4. A context is ended when when all music referring it has finished, so after the third quarter, another is removed.

The \new construction creates a context with a generated, unique contextname. An expression with \new always leads to a new context. This is convenient for creating multiple staffs, multiple lyric lines, etc.

When using automatic staff changes, automatic phrasing, etc., the context names have special meanings, so \new cannot be used.


This page is for LilyPond-2.0.1 (stable-branch).

Report errors to <bug-lilypond@gnu.org>.