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Hara kiri staffs

In orchestral scores, staff lines that only have rests are usually removed. This saves some space. LilyPond also supports this through the hara kiri¹ staff. This staff commits suicide when it finds itself to be empty after the line-breaking process. It will not disappear when it contains normal rests, you must use multi measure rests.

The hara kiri staff is specialized version of the Staff

context. It is available as the context identifier \HaraKiriStaffContext. Observe how the second staff in this example disappears in the second line.

\score  {
  \notes \relative c' <
    \context Staff = SA { e4 f g a \break c1 }
    \context Staff = SB { c4 d e f \break R1 }
  >
  \paper {
    linewidth = 6.\cm
    \translator { \HaraKiriStaffContext }
  }
}

Footnotes

1. Hara kiri, also called Seppuku, is the ritual suicide of the Japanese Samourai warriors.

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

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