Mensural rests

Use the style property of grob Rest to select ancient rests. Supported styles are classical, neomensural, and mensural. classical differs from the default style only in that the quarter rest looks like a horizontally mirrored 8th rest. The mensural and the neomensural styles mimic the appearance of rests in manuscripts and prints up to the 16th century.

The following example demonstrates the mensural and neomensural styles:

     
     \set Score.skipBars = ##t
     \override Rest #'style = #'classical
     r\longa^"classical" r\breve r1 r2 r4 r8 r16 s \break
     \override Rest #'style = #'mensural
     r\longa^"mensural" r\breve r1 r2 r4 r8 r16 s \break
     \override Rest #'style = #'neomensural
     r\longa^"neomensural" r\breve r1 r2 r4 r8 r16

There are no 32th and 64th rests specifically for the mensural or neo-mensural style. Instead, the rests from the default style will be taken.

See Ancient notation for a chart of all rests.

See also

Notation Reference: Rests, gives a general introduction into the use of rests.

Other languages: español.