Kievan melismata

Notes within a Kievan melisma are usually placed close to each other and the melismata separated by whitespace. This is done to allow the chanter to quickly identify the melodic structures of Znamenny chant. In LilyPond, melismata are treated as ligatures and the spacing is implemented by the Kievan_ligature_engraver.

When the KievanVoice and KievanStaff contexts are used, the Kievan_ligature_engraver is enabled by default. In other contexts, it can be invoked by replacing the Ligature_bracket_engraver with the Kievan_ligature_engraver in the layout block:

\layout {
  \context {
    \Voice
    \remove Ligature_bracket_engraver
    \consists Kievan_ligature_engraver
  }
}

The spacing between the notes within a Kievan ligature can be controlled by setting the padding property of the KievanLigature.

The following example demonstrates the use of Kievan ligatures:

% Font settings for Cyrillic
\paper {
  property-defaults.fonts.serif = "Linux Libertine O,serif"
}

\score {
  <<
    \new KievanVoice = "melody" \relative c' {
      \cadenzaOn
        e2 \[ e4( d4 ) \] \[ c4( d e d ) \] e1 \fine
    }
    \new Lyrics \lyricsto "melody" {
      Га -- врі -- и -- лу
    }
  >>
}

See also

Music Glossary: ligature.

Notation Reference: White mensural ligatures, Gregorian square neume ligatures, Ligatures.

Known issues and warnings

Horizontal spacing of ligatures is poor.