LilyPond Beginnershandleiding

Hoofdstuk 4: Tweaking output 105
where the extra pair of braces after the \with clause are required to ensure the enclosed overrides
and music are applied to the ossia staff.
But what is the difference between modifying the staff context by using \with and modifying
the stencils of the clef and the time signature with \override, or in this case \omit? The main
difference is that changes made in a \with clause are made at the time the context is created,
and remain in force as the default values for the duration of that context, whereas \set or
\override commands embedded in the music are dynamic – they make changes synchronized
with a particular point in the music. If changes are unset or reverted using \unset or \revert
they return to their default values, which will be the ones set in the \with clause, or if none
have been set there, the normal default values.
Some context properties can be modified only in \with clauses. These are those properties
which cannot sensibly be changed after the context has been created. alignAboveContext and
its partner, alignBelowContext, are two such properties – once the staff has been created its
alignment is decided and it would make no sense to try to change it later.
The default values of layout object properties can also be set in \with clauses. Simply use the
normal \override command leaving out the context name, since this is unambiguously defined
as the context which the \with clause is modifying. If fact, an error will be generated if a context
is specified in this location.
So we could replace the example above with
\new Staff ="main" {
\relative g' {
r4 g8 g c4 c8 d |
e4 r8
>
r4 |
}
}
It turns out that we can also employ the shorthands \hide and \omit for setting the
transparent property and clearing the stencil here, leading to the result