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I'm creating pdfs with a single melodic part. In this case I'm not crazy about the instrument name in an indent of the music, so I was started putting the instrument name as a sub title and remove the Instrument_name_engraver and indents from the layout. I recently started repeating the same part in the same document for different transpositions for a variety of solo instruments, and customizing layouts for instruments individually just feels cumbersome.

I'm looking for a way, ideally without just shifting the position manually, to move the results of the lilypond Instrument_name_engraver to the top left corner (almost) of the page, in a template, the way I see the majority of individual instrument parts for concert band. Lilyponds defaults seem to be better suited for scores or when multiple voices are being staved together.

My experience with moving the instrument name field manually, is that it changes somewhat depending on the title and other annotations such as tempo markings.

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  • So you want no instrument name in front of the staff, and instead a page title at the top? Why don't you just set the instrument name as the title, then? – Kilian Foth Mar 15 '18 at 7:30
  • @kilianfoth not just the top, the top left, so it's not strictly part of the title. When your preparing concert band scores and the subsequent parts you don't change the title or subtitle based on the instrument, it, like the arranger or original composer, merits it's own field situated in its own regular location. – EngBIRD Mar 15 '18 at 11:58
  • @EngBIRD - Have you already looked at the examples here? lilypond.org/doc/v2.18/Documentation/notation/… — although it reads “custom layout for titles,” the information there can be used for non-title elements like instrument names. – Neal Mar 15 '18 at 14:54
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See here for the documentation on creating custom titles.

In your case, you need to add a new field at the top level, here listed as:

\fill-line {
  \bold \box \fromproperty #'header:instrument
  \null
}

in the scoreTitleMarkup. Then, simply add your instrument in the \header for each score that you are creating. The title will be added automatically.

\version "2.18.0"
\header {
  title = "Baa Baa Black Sheep"
  poet = "Anonymous"
  composer = "Nursery Rhyme"
  tagline = ##f
}
\paper {
  indent = #0
  print-page-number = ##f
  bookTitleMarkup = ##f
  scoreTitleMarkup = \markup \center-column {
    \fill-line {
      \bold \box \fromproperty #'header:instrument
      \null
    }
    \fill-line {
      \bold \fontsize #3 \fromproperty #'header:title
    }
    \fill-line {
      \fromproperty #'header:poet
      \fromproperty #'header:composer
    }
  }
}
example = \relative c' {
  \key c \major
  \time 4/4
  c4 c g' g a8 a a a g2
  f4 f e e d d c2
  \bar "|."
}
\bookpart {
  \score {
    <<
      \new Staff \transpose c d { \example }
    >>
    \header {
      instrument = \markup \concat { "B" \flat " Trumpet" }
    }
  }
}
\bookpart {
  \score {
    <<
      \new Staff \transpose c c' { \example }
    >>
    \header {
      instrument = "Flute"
    }
  }
}

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