Thanks, Karl! In the PDF that you sent, the distance between the
"vaticana-do3" clef and the first neume (note) looks better, but a petrucci
clef has for some reason appeared before the do clef.
I figured out a solution using
\override Staff.Clef.space-alist.first-note = #'(minimum-fixed-space . [insert
one’s preferred spacing])
New output:
[image: image.png]
See below for new code.
Two other issues came up (already resolved in the screenshot above):
One, I think it looks strange when an incipit with a four-line staff
is placed right next to the beginning of the main five-line staff. The
default horizontal spacing between \incipit and the Staff is too narrow.
Two, the spacing between neumes within the incipit was too narrow.
I solved both issues below using a combination of \stopStaff, \hideNotes,
and \unHideNotes.
If anyone has more elegant solutions than any of the above, please let me
know. If not, I will add my new code to the new snippet repository at LilyPond
wiki <https://wiki.lilypond.community>, because I think that other
engravers of modern transcriptions of early music will run into the same or
similar issues when working with incipits containing ancient notation.
Gabriel
P.S. I saw at Major changes in LilyPond
<https://lilypond.org/doc/v2.25/Documentation/changes/major-changes-in-lilypond>
that version 2.25 features “better spacing for extra-wide clefs (like \clef
"GG") or extra-slim clefs (like \clef "petrucci-c3").” That is good news;
my thanks to those responsible for the improvements!
%%% CODE BEGINS
\version "2.24.4"
ictus = #(make-articulation 'ictus)
chant = \relative c' {
\cadenzaOn
c4 e g\ictus a g2
a4 c\ictus b a g a\ictus g g2 \bar ","
}
verba = \lyricmode {
Sál -- ve, Re -- gí -- "na, *" má -- ter mi -- se -- ri -- cór -- di --
ae:
}
incipitMusic = \relative c {
\sourcefileline 1783
\override Staff.StaffSymbol.line-count = #4
\clef "vaticana-do3"
\override NoteHead.style = #'vaticana.punctum
c1
% The following line helps with spacing between the first two neumes:
\hideNotes c \unHideNotes
e
% The following line helps with spacing between the second neume and the
end of the visible four-line staff:
\hideNotes e \unHideNotes
% The following line effectively prints white space between the incipit
and the modern five-line staff:
\stopStaff \hideNotes g g
}
\score {
\new Staff \with {
\incipit
\incipitMusic instrumentName = ""
}
<<
\new Voice = "melody" \chant
\new Lyrics = "one" \lyricsto melody \verba
>>
\layout {
\context {
\Voice
\remove Stem_engraver
}
\context {
\Staff
\remove Time_signature_engraver
}
\context {
\MensuralStaff
\remove Time_signature_engraver
% The following line reduces the horizontal space between the
"vaticana-do3" clef and the first neume (c1):
\override Clef.space-alist.first-note = #'(minimum-fixed-space . 1.0)
% The above line is highlighted purple in Frescobaldi. I do not know
why, but in any case, the code is working!
}
}
}
%%% CODE ENDS
On Wed, 5 Nov 2025 at 11:32, <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
