Re: slurs and bars in vocal music

[Kieren MacMillan]

Hi,

> my editor tells me, in vocal music eights (everything smaller than  
> a quarter)
> have to be normally unbarred and I should use barred eights instead  
> of slurs.

That is *not* modern practice... I would *strongly* recommend that  
you try to convince your editor to use modern practice (i.e., beaming  
to the beat, slurring for melismas), which is the current standard,  
not least of all because it's significantly easier for singers to read.

However, if you can't convince your editor to get into the 20th  
(never mind 21st) Century...  ;)

> Is there a global setting for that?
> I know \autoBeamOn/Off (works only within a voice) and \override  
> Slur #'stencil = ##f
> But this way there would be a horrendous amount of tweaking - are  
> there better ways?

The docs at
<http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.13/Documentation/notation/Aligning-lyrics- 
to-a-melody#Aligning-lyrics-to-a-melody>
have lots of related tweaks and tips — once you've completely (re-) 
read it, come back to the list with specific questions.

Hope this helps!
Kieren.