Percent repeats

Repeated short patterns are printed once, and the repeated pattern is replaced with a special sign.

The syntax is

\repeat percent number musicexpr

where musicexpr is a music expression.

Patterns that are shorter than one measure are replaced by slashes.

\relative c'' {
  \repeat percent 4 { c128 d e f }
  \repeat percent 4 { c64 d e f }
  \repeat percent 5 { c32 d e f }
  \repeat percent 4 { c16 d e f }
  \repeat percent 4 { c8 d }
  \repeat percent 4 { c4 }
  \repeat percent 2 { c2 }
}

Patterns of one or two measures are replaced by percent-like symbols.

\relative c'' {
  \repeat percent 2 { c4 d e f }
  \repeat percent 2 { c2 d }
  \repeat percent 2 { c1 }
}

\relative {
  \repeat percent 3 { c''4 d e f | c2 g' }
}

Note that the correct time offset to access the DoublePercentRepeat grob is the beginning of the repeat’s second bar, which can be easily achieved with \after.

\new Voice \with { \consists Balloon_engraver }
  { \after 1*3
      \balloonGrobText DoublePercentRepeat #'(-1 . 2) "repeat"
    \repeat percent 2 { g'1 | a'1 } }

Patterns that are shorter than one measure but contain mixed durations use a double-percent symbol.

\relative {
  \repeat percent 4 { c''8. <d f>16 }
  \repeat percent 2 { \tuplet 3/2 { r8 c d } e4 }
}

Selected Snippets

Percent repeat counter

Measure repeats of more than two repeats can get a counter when the convenient property is switched, as shown in this example:

\relative c'' {
  \set countPercentRepeats = ##t
  \repeat percent 4 { c1 }
}

Percent repeat count visibility

Percent repeat counters can be shown at regular intervals by setting the context property repeatCountVisibility.

\relative c'' {
  \set countPercentRepeats = ##t
  \set repeatCountVisibility = #(every-nth-repeat-count-visible 5)
  \repeat percent 10 { c1 } \break
  \set repeatCountVisibility = #(every-nth-repeat-count-visible 2)
  \repeat percent 6 { c1 d1 }
}

Isolated percent repeats

Isolated percents can also be printed.

makePercent =
#(define-music-function (note) (ly:music?)
   "Make a percent repeat the same length as NOTE."
   (make-music 'PercentEvent
               'length (ly:music-length note)))

\relative c'' {
  \makePercent s1
}

See also

Music Glossary: percent repeat, simile.

Snippets: Repeats.

Internals Reference: RepeatSlash, RepeatSlashEvent, DoubleRepeatSlash, PercentRepeat, PercentRepeatCounter, PercentRepeatedMusic, Percent_repeat_engraver, DoublePercentEvent, DoublePercentRepeat, DoublePercentRepeatCounter, Double_percent_repeat_engraver, Slash_repeat_engraver.

Known issues and warnings

Percent repeats will not contain anything else apart from the percent sign itself; in particular, timing changes will not be repeated.

\repeat percent 3 { \time 5/4 c2. 2 \time 4/4 2 2 }

Any meter changes or \partial commands need to occur in parallel passages outside of any percent repeat, e.g in a separate timing track.

<<
  \repeat percent 3 { c2. 2 2 2 }
  \repeat unfold 3 { \time 5/4 s4*5 \time 4/4 s1 }
>>