12.3.3 Doubling a note with slurs (example)

Suppose we want to create a function which translates input like ‘`a'’ into ‘`a( a)'’. We begin by examining the internal representation of the music we want to end up with.

\displayMusic{ a'( a') }
===>
(make-music
  'SequentialMusic
  'elements
  (list (make-music
          'EventChord
          'elements
          (list (make-music
                  'NoteEvent
                  'duration
                  (ly:make-duration 2 0 1 1)
                  'pitch
                  (ly:make-pitch 0 5 0))
                (make-music
                  'SlurEvent
                  'span-direction
                  -1)))
        (make-music
          'EventChord
          'elements
          (list (make-music
                  'NoteEvent
                  'duration
                  (ly:make-duration 2 0 1 1)
                  'pitch
                  (ly:make-pitch 0 5 0))
                (make-music
                  'SlurEvent
                  'span-direction
                  1)))))

The bad news is that the SlurEvent expressions must be added “inside” the note (or more precisely, inside the EventChord expression).

Now we examine the input,

(make-music
  'SequentialMusic
  'elements
  (list (make-music
          'EventChord
          'elements
          (list (make-music
                  'NoteEvent
                  'duration
                  (ly:make-duration 2 0 1 1)
                  'pitch
                  (ly:make-pitch 0 5 0))))))

So in our function, we need to clone this expression (so that we have two notes to build the sequence), add SlurEvents to the 'elements property of each one, and finally make a SequentialMusic with the two EventChords.

doubleSlur = #(define-music-function (parser location note) (ly:music?)
         "Return: { note ( note ) }.
         ‘note’ is supposed to be an EventChord."
         (let ((note2 (ly:music-deep-copy note)))
           (set! (ly:music-property note 'elements)
                 (cons (make-music 'SlurEvent 'span-direction -1)
                       (ly:music-property note 'elements)))
           (set! (ly:music-property note2 'elements)
                 (cons (make-music 'SlurEvent 'span-direction 1)
                       (ly:music-property note2 'elements)))
           (make-music 'SequentialMusic 'elements (list note note2))))