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Durations

The syntax for a verbose duration specification is

 \duration scmduration

In Note, Chord, and Lyrics mode, durations may be designated by numbers and dots: durations are entered as their reciprocal values. For notes longer than a whole you must use identifiers.

 c'\breve
c'1 c'2 c'4 c'8 c'16 c'32 c'64 c'64
r\longa r\breve
r1 r2 r4 r8 r16 r32 r64 r64

To get a longa note head, you have to use mensural note heads. This is accomplished by setting the style property of the NoteHead grob to mensural. There is also a note head style baroque which gives mensural note heads for \longa and \breve but standard note heads for shorter notes.

 \property Voice.NoteHead \set #'style = #'mensural
 a'\longa

If the duration is omitted then it is set to the previous duration entered. At the start of parsing a quarter note is assumed. The duration can be followed by dots (`.') to obtain dotted note lengths.

  a'4. b'4.. c'8.

You can alter the length of duration by a fraction N/M by appending `*N/M' (or `*N' if M=1). This will not affect the appearance of the notes or rests produced.

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Copyright (c) 1997--2001 Han-Wen Nienhuys and Jan Nieuwenhuizen.

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