lilypond-user
[Top][All Lists]
Advanced

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Lyrics and centering


From: Daniel Johnson
Subject: Re: Lyrics and centering
Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:43:59 -0700
User-agent: Thunderbird 1.5 (Windows/20051201)

Kieren MacMillan wrote:

I think you might be mistaken regarding the traditional engraving convention -- my copy of "The Essential Dictionary of Musical Notation" says

"Another help in reading a melisma is the proper alignment of the lyric.
    The word or syllable, instead of being centered under the note,
    should be aligned flush left with the left edge of the notehead."
There are circumstances where that is problematic, though. Let's say I have a SATB score in four staves, in which all four voices are singing the same lyrics, but the sopranos are singing a melisma while the basses are holding a whole note. Ideally the lyrics would line up vertically, but in practice the bass lyrics will be slightly to the left of the soprano. The solution to this is to \set associatedVoice, but this can be very clunky, especially since this \set has to occur at least one syllable before it is supposed to take effect. (At least I think so -- anytime I use this solution it involves about 30 minutes of trial and error.)

I can't think of an easily-implemented solution to this, though, other than a bunch of manual tweaks. While Finale lines them up evenly, it does so at the expense of the traditional engraving convention you've mentioned above. This is part of the reason why Finale scores have a recognizable unpleasant look.

--Daniel





reply via email to

[Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread]