How can I do this ...

[Guy Stalnaker]

For the section that talks about building a score from scratch:

http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.15/Documentation/learning/building-a-score-from-scratch

The author chose to construct a Piano Staff + single staff score. That 
results in three staves, with the top two "connected" by a brace and the 
bottom stave 'unbraced' (as it were).

I'm taking as my guide the free scores by Johann Sebastian Bach at the 
International Music Score Library Project. What's nice about these IMSLP 
editions is that they are almost all pdf photocopies of old editions, 
e.g., http://imslp.org/wiki/Special:ImagefromIndex/01337 of the great 
Bach Passacaglia in C minor, by Breitkopf & Härtel, 1867. Plate B.W. XV.

The brace shown for the above mentioned edition of the Passacaglia in C 
Minor centers on the middle stave and extends upwards and downwards 
toward the outer staves. The current analog in Lilypond for this 
'centered on middle stave' positioning is to use not a 
PianoStaff+OneStaff but a GrandStaff for the three staves. Doing this 
does at least engrave a brace that covers all three staves centered on 
the middle stave though it does not engrave a stave like that shown in 
the Breitkoph and Haertel score. The B&H score uses what appears to be a 
brace sized for a two-staff score. The Lilypond output is larger 
extending across all three staves.

Is it possible to modify the brace from a GrandStaff or the positioning 
of the brace for the PianoStaff version so that it is more like the B&H 
engraving? I know the example from the LP documentation is acceptable 
(the Peter's Edition of the Bach is engraved in this manner) but I, 
personally, like how B&H do it -- I like that lovely brace.

Regards.

--

"There is only love, and then oblivion. Love is all we have
to set against hatred." (paraphrased) Ian McEwan

Guy Stalnaker
address@hidden