7

Using LilyPond, I'm engraving some music that consists of two parts that are repeated. The first repeated phrase contains an alternate ending. By default, LilyPond renders the MWE below:

\version "2.16.2"

\score {
\new Staff \relative c'' {
    \repeat volta 2 {
        a1 | a
    }
    \alternative{
        { b }
        { a }
    }

    \break

    \repeat volta 2 {
        c1 | c | c | c
    }
}
\layout {}
}

like this:

MWE rendered with LilyPond

This looks alright, except that I would like the second ending to have a double bar line ("||") after it. However, tweaking the MWE above in such a way that one would expect that to happen (\bar "||"\break\bar "|:") results in the same output. Removing the second bar and only putting the double bar before (or after) the break (eg. \bar "||"\break) results in:

Rendering of the tweaked MWE illustrating the problem

LilyPond doesn't seem to understand that it actually makes sense to have both bars (since I've manually inserted a break between the two measures).

Is there a way to force the bar engraver to output both bars?

2 Answers 2

5

Just after posting, I found the answer to my own question in the Lilypond Documentation. For version 2.16 (which I'm using):

In addition, you can specify "||:", which is equivalent to "|:" except at line breaks, where it gives a double bar line at the end of the line and a start repeat at the beginning of the next line.

so one would write:

\break\bar "||:"

For version 2.17 (unstable / development) it is currently:

In addition, you can specify ".|:-||", which is equivalent to ".|:" except at line breaks, where it gives a double bar line at the end of the line and a start repeat at the beginning of the next line.

eg:

\break\bar ".|:-||"
2
  • It's so weird that ".|:-||" is the new way! To write "||:" or even ".||:" is more logical to my mind. Jul 2, 2017 at 15:04
  • I'm downvoting this only because it's obsolete. In newer versions you can use \section as mentioned in the other answer.
    – benrg
    May 20 at 23:14
2

LilyPond v2.23 offers a few new commands: The \section command provides an elegant solution for printing double bar lines — and it works straight-out-of-the-box when adjacent to repeat barlines.

\section\break

see: 1.2.5 Bars - Automatic bar lines

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