8.2.7 Ottava brackets

‘Ottava’ brackets introduce an extra transposition of an octave for the staff. They are created by invoking the function set-octavation

     
     \relative c''' {
       a2 b
       #(set-octavation 1)
       a b
       #(set-octavation 0)
       a b
     }

The set-octavation function also takes -1 (for 8va bassa), 2 (for 15ma), and -2 (for 15ma bassa) as arguments. Internally the function sets the properties ottavation (e.g., to "8va" or "8vb") and centralCPosition. For overriding the text of the bracket, set ottavation after invoking set-octavation, i.e.,

     
     {
       #(set-octavation 1)
       \set Staff.ottavation = #"8"
       c'''
     }

See also

Program reference: OttavaBracket.

Examples: input/regression/ottava.ly, input/regression/ottava-broken.ly.

Bugs

set-octavation will get confused when clef changes happen during an octavation bracket.