Beamer, biblatex, includeonlylecture works but bibliography global

Question

I like to keep all my university lecture and tutorial slides for a given course in one file because it is so much less work than having a separate file for each, particularly since I use the article mode with memoir to produce a course book for myself and my TAs.

I have discovered, however, that having a second (or more) \lecture commands interferes with the production of bibliography at the end.

I have tried (unsuccessfully) various schemes suggested by others (e.g., How do I add a separate bibtex bibliography in beamer to each lecture?) but in any case have cobbled together an MWE based on an actual biblatex example file to illustrate the issue.

Somehow, the refsections don't seem to take hold.

For the handout, I want bibliography for only the current lecture. With my memoir template, I want everything: all slides and the entire bibliography. Currently, the slides are properly filtered, but the bibliography is entire, whether slides are included or not.

I can do this using \include files and \includeonly but as noted above would prefer not to split things up.

MWE:

% Handout version follows.
% Alternate header used for 'article' version.
\documentclass[t,ignorenonframetext,handout,hyperref={xetex,bookmarks,breaklinks,colorlinks,unicode,allcolors=blue}]{beamer}

\usetheme{Warsaw}
\usefonttheme{professionalfonts}
\setbeamertemplate{footline}[page number]{}

% Customize for handout mode
\setbeameroption{show notes}

\includeonlylecture{L1}

\usepackage{biblatex-chicago}
    \addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

% Main code common to presentation, handout, and article
\mode<all>{
    \institute{Department of History\\Miskatonic University}
    \title{Course title}
    \author{Author}
}

\begin{document}
\begin{titlingpage}
\maketitle

\begin{abstract}
\noindent This course will bla-bla-bla.
\end{abstract}
\end{titlingpage}

\OnehalfSpacing

\frontmatter
\tableofcontents

\mainmatter
% LECTURE
\lecture[Lecture 1]{Syllabus and course introduction}{L1}
\chapter{C1}
\begin{refsection}
\mode<presentation>{%
\begin{frame}{HI999---Course title}
\date{6 Jan 2020}
\title{Syllabus and course introduction}
\maketitle
\end{frame}
}

\begin{frame}{Title}{Subtitle}
This is just filler text \parencite{massa}.

This is just filler text \parencite{augustine}.

This is just filler text \parencite{cotton}.

This is just filler text \parencite{hammond}.
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}[allowframebreaks]{Bibliography}
\printbibliography[heading=subbibliography]
\end{frame}
\end{refsection}
\clearpage

% LECTURE
\lecture[Lecture 2]{First real lecture}{L2}
\chapter{C2}
\begin{refsection}
\mode<presentation>{%
\begin{frame}{HI999---Course title}
\date{8 Jan 2020}
\title{First real lecture}
\subtitle{With subtitle}
\maketitle
\end{frame}
}

\begin{frame}{Title}{Subtitle}
This is just filler text \parencite{murray}.

This is just filler text \parencite{augustine}.

This is just filler text \parencite{cotton}.

This is just filler text \parencite{bertram}.
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}[allowframebreaks]{Bibliography}
\printbibliography[heading=subbibliography]
\end{frame}
\end{refsection}
\clearpage

\backmatter

\end{document}

Answer 1

As kaba's answer already hints at, \begin{refsection} and \end{refsection} are ignored due to the ignorenonframetext option (since they appear outside of frames).

By wrapping \begin{refsection} and \end{refsection} into

\mode<all>{...}

you can make sure they are always taken into account by beamer.

\documentclass[t,ignorenonframetext,handout,
  hyperref={bookmarks,breaklinks,colorlinks,unicode,allcolors=blue}
]{beamer}

\setbeameroption{show notes}

\includeonlylecture{L1}

\usepackage{biblatex-chicago}
    \addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

\mode<all>{
  \institute{Department of History\\Miskatonic University}
  \title{Course title}
  \author{Author}
}

\begin{document}
\begin{titlingpage}
\maketitle

\begin{abstract}
\noindent This course will bla-bla-bla.
\end{abstract}
\end{titlingpage}

\OnehalfSpacing

\frontmatter
\tableofcontents

\mainmatter
% LECTURE
\lecture[Lecture 1]{Syllabus and course introduction}{L1}
\chapter{C1}
\mode<all>{\begin{refsection}}
\mode<presentation>{%
\begin{frame}{HI999---Course title}
\date{6 Jan 2020}
\title{Syllabus and course introduction}
\maketitle
\end{frame}
}

\begin{frame}{Title}{Subtitle}
This is just filler text \parencite{sigfridsson}.
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}[allowframebreaks]{Bibliography}
\printbibliography[heading=subbibliography]
\end{frame}
\mode<all>{\end{refsection}}
\clearpage

% LECTURE
\lecture[Lecture 2]{First real lecture}{L2}
\chapter{C2}
\mode<all>{\begin{refsection}}
\mode<presentation>{%
\begin{frame}{HI999---Course title}
\date{8 Jan 2020}
\title{First real lecture}
\subtitle{With subtitle}
\maketitle
\end{frame}
}

\begin{frame}{Title}{Subtitle}
This is just filler text \parencite{nussbaum}.
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}[allowframebreaks]{Bibliography}
\printbibliography[heading=subbibliography]
\end{frame}
\mode<all>{\end{refsection}}
\clearpage

\backmatter

\end{document}

produces truly local bibliographies.

It is also possible to restrict the refsection to apply only to particular modes (the available modes are beamer, handout, slide and the more special modes trans and second; the mode all applies always, presentation to all modes except article)

\mode<beamer>{...}

or

\mode<beamer|handout>{...}

or similar constructions

Answer 2

Remove ignorenonframetext to get only cites from current refsection:

\documentclass[t,
%ignorenonframetext,
handout,hyperref={bookmarks,breaklinks,colorlinks,unicode,allcolors=blue}]{beamer}

\includeonlylecture{L1}
\usepackage{biblatex-chicago}
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

\begin{document}

\lecture[Lecture 1]{Syllabus and course introduction}{L1}
\begin{refsection}
\begin{frame}{Title}{Subtitle}
This is just filler text \parencite{massa}.
\printbibliography[heading=subbibliography]
\end{frame}
\end{refsection}

\lecture[Lecture 2]{First real lecture}{L2}
\begin{refsection}
\begin{frame}{Title}{Subtitle}
This is just filler text \parencite{murray}.
\printbibliography[heading=subbibliography]
\end{frame}
\end{refsection}

\end{document}

Answer 3

To ensure that the full solution to the original problem is entirely clear, I post the following comprehensive solution below. I have aimed for clarity and detail but if I've gone overboard, feel free to edit!

% Goal:
%    1) beamer presentation unencumbered with references or bibliography
%    2) handout with references, bibliography, and notes only for current 'lecture'
%    3) article with full references and bibliography
% HANDOUT/BEAMER header follows. Use alternate header for article.
\documentclass[t,
handout, % comment out for beamer presentation
hyperref={xetex,bookmarks,breaklinks,colorlinks,unicode,allcolors=blue}]{beamer}
\setbeameroption{show notes} % comment out for beamer presentation

% Sample ARTICLE header follows
%\documentclass{memoir}
%\title{HI999---Course title}
%\author{Author}    
%\usepackage{beamerarticle}

\usetheme{Warsaw}
\usefonttheme{professionalfonts}
\setbeamertemplate{footline}[page number]{}

\includeonlylecture{L1}

\usepackage{biblatex-chicago}
    \addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

% Main code common to presentation, handout, and article
\mode<all>{
    \institute{Department of History\\Miskatonic University}
    \title{Course title}
    \author{Author}
}

\begin{document}
% Here and below article-only code specifically identified
\mode<article>{
\begin{titlingpage}
\maketitle

\begin{abstract}
\noindent This course will bla-bla-bla.
\end{abstract}
\end{titlingpage}

\frontmatter
\tableofcontents

\mainmatter
}
% SAMPLE LECTURE (in the 'beamer' sense, captured or not by \includeonlylecture)
\lecture[Lecture 1]{Syllabus and course introduction}{L1}
\mode<article>{%
\chapter{Chapter heading}
}

\mode<handout>{\begin{refsection}}% applies ONLY to handout

\mode<presentation>{% applies to beamer and handout, not article
\begin{frame}{HI999---Course title}
\date{6 Jan 2020}
\title{Syllabus and course introduction}
\maketitle
\end{frame}
}

\mode<article>{%
% Whatever may be needed between frames
}

\begin{frame}{Title}{Subtitle}% all modes
This is just filler text \mode<article|handout>{\parencite{massa}}.
\note{Note page.}
\end{frame}

\mode<handout>{% only in handout
% Prints an empty frame if no references but at least make clear
% that there are no references, as opposed to leaving the impression
% that bibliography is missing
\begin{frame}[allowframebreaks]{Bibliography}
\printbibliography[heading=subbibliography]
\end{frame}
\end{refsection}
}
\clearpage

% REPEAT 'LECTURES' AS REQUIRED

\mode<article>{%
\backmatter

\chapter{Bibliography} % full bibliography
\printbibliography[heading=none]
}

\end{document}

Answer 4

The following solution is less explicit but much tidier, following insights derived from @moewe's code.

It relies on the realization that as with \includeonlylecture, ignorenonframetext does not mean 'skip ruthlessly' but 'skip except when overridden by mode command'. In other respects it is also 'more minimal'.

% Goal:
%    1) beamer presentation unencumbered with references or bibliography
%    2) handout with references, bibliography, and notes only for current 'lecture'
%    3) article with full references and bibliography
% HANDOUT/BEAMER header follows. Use alternate header for article.
\documentclass[t,ignorenonframetext,
handout,                     % comment out for beamer presentation
]{beamer}
\setbeameroption{show notes} % comment out for beamer presentation

% Sample ARTICLE header follows
%\documentclass{memoir}
%\usepackage{beamerarticle}

\includeonlylecture{L1}

\usepackage{biblatex-chicago}
    \addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

\mode<all>{
    \institute{Department of History\\Miskatonic University}
    \title{Course title}
    \author{Author}
}

\begin{document}
\begin{titlingpage}
\maketitle

\begin{abstract}
\noindent This course will bla-bla-bla.
\end{abstract}
\end{titlingpage}

\frontmatter
\tableofcontents

\mainmatter

% SAMPLE LECTURE (in the 'beamer' sense, captured or not by \includeonlylecture)
\lecture[Lecture 1]{Syllabus and course introduction}{L1}
\chapter{Chapter heading}

\mode<handout>{\begin{refsection}}% applies ONLY to handout

\mode<presentation>{% applies to beamer and handout, not article
\begin{frame}{HI999---Course title}
\date{6 Jan 2020}
\title{Syllabus and course introduction}
\maketitle
\end{frame}
}

% Whatever may be needed between frames for article mode goes here

\begin{frame}{Title}{Subtitle}% all modes
This is just filler text \mode<article|handout>{\parencite{massa}}.
\note{Note page.}
\end{frame}

\mode<handout>{% only in handout
% Prints an empty frame if no references but at least make clear
% that there are no references, as opposed to leaving the impression
% that bibliography is missing
\begin{frame}[allowframebreaks]{Bibliography}
\printbibliography[heading=subbibliography]
\end{frame}
}

\mode<handout>{\end{refsection}}
\clearpage

% REPEAT 'LECTURES' AS REQUIRED

\backmatter

\chapter{Bibliography} % full bibliography, article only
\printbibliography[heading=none]

\end{document}