merging simultaneous rests from two voices

[Wilbert Berendsen]

Hi,

in choir music with two voices on a staff, I want to merge rests if both 
voices have the same rest-value at the same time.

I know that I can use \oneVoice r r \voiceOne in the upper voice and skips in 
the other voice, but I want to use the same voice data also on separate 
staffs. I could manage that with tags, but that clutters the voices.

So I'm trying to write a scheme macro that:
- just inserts a rest if the voice is in \oneVoice mode,
- inserts '\oneVoice r \voiceOne' if the voice is in \voiceOne mode,
- or inserts 's' if the voice is in \voiceTwo mode

My question: how do I determine from within scheme which mode the voice is in? 
I guess that I should read the 'direction property from some object, but from 
which?

Related question: isn't there a simpler way to just merge rests if they occur 
in both voices? Something like:
        \override Staff.NoteColumn #'merge-rests = ##t
That should merge rests on the Staff level if all voices have rests of the 
same duration. I would be willing to write code for such a function, but I 
would not know where to start in the C++ code...

best regards,
Wilbert Berendsen


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