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8.2.5 Instrument names

In an orchestral score, instrument names are printed at the left side of the staves.

This can be achieved by setting Staff.instrument and Staff.instr. This will print a string before the start of the staff. For the first staff, instrument is used, for the following ones, instr is used.

     
     \set Staff.instrument = "Ploink "
     \set Staff.instr = "Plk "
     c1
     \break
     c''

[image of music]

You can also use markup texts to construct more complicated instrument names, for example

     
     \set Staff.instrument = \markup {
       \column { "Clarinetti"
                 \line { "in B" \smaller \flat } } }
     c''1

[image of music]

If you wish to center the instrument names, you must center all of them

     
     { <<
     \new Staff {
       \set Staff.instrument = \markup {
         \center-align { "Clarinetti"
           \line { "in B" \smaller \flat } } }
       c''1
     }
     \new Staff {
       \set Staff.instrument = \markup{ \center-align { Vibraphone }}
       c''1
     }
     >>
     }

[image of music]

For longer instrument names, it may be useful to increase the indent setting in the \layout block.

To center instrument names while leaving extra space to the right,

     
     \new StaffGroup \relative
     <<
       \new Staff {
         \set Staff.instrument
         = \markup { \hcenter-in #10 "blabla" }
         c1 c1
       }
       \new Staff {
         \set Staff.instrument
         = \markup { \hcenter-in #10 "blo" }
         c1 c1
       }
     >>

[image of music]

See also

Program reference: InstrumentName.

Bugs

When you put a name on a grand staff or piano staff, the width of the brace is not taken into account. The following property setting can be used to move the instrument names to the left, in such situations.

\override Score.InstrumentName #'space-alist =
  #'((left-edge extra-space . 2.0))

This page is for LilyPond-2.8.8 (stable-branch).

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