Re: best practice(s) for divisi choral works

[Kieren MacMillan]

Hi all,

Following up on this thread from December…

Attached is an example containing the choral parts from the first verse of my 
“Wither’s Carol”. (If you’re interested, you can find more information on the 
piece, including a recording, at <http://kierenmacmillan.info/withers-carol/>.)

My goal is to design a mechanism/structure which gives the engraver-user 
“complete flexibility” when it comes to the final layout (e.g., the octavo 
layout will almost certainly be quite different from the full score layout, 
viz-a-viz breaks and thus system content).

If you look at the score, you’ll see that the absolute minimum Staff+Lyric 
requirements are:
    1 Staff + 1 Lyrics (below for SATB) for mm. 1-8;
    2 Staff + 2 Lyrics (one between for SAT, one below for B) for mm. 9-12;
    2 Staff + 4 Lyrics (above and below upper for S and A, above and below 
lower for T and B) for mm. 13-15;
    1 Staff + 1 Lyrics (below for SATB) for mm. 16-17.

Of course, they can all be expressed using 4 Staff + 4 Lyrics — and mm 13-15 
probably *should* be expressed that way (since the “minimum” might be 
unnecessarily confusing). However, I want to structure the Lilypond code such 
that I can *choose* — or, better yet, let Lilypond choose — which setup to use, 
based on spacing needs, line and page breaks, etc. The setup should support 
markups (a la \partcombine) and end-of-system arrows to indicate 
splitting/combining, and so on.

My first instinct is to break the shared content into a variable (only if 
absolutely necessary), use \addQuote etc. to populate the other parts, and use 
\showStaff and \letStaffVanish to indicate where 2 and/or 4 staves are 
absolutely necessary. But I also know there are new DivisibleStaff mechanisms 
(which I have not looked into in depth yet) that may be useful.

I think the best solution may be of wider interest, so I would like to 
brainstorm this little example with anyone who is interested in doing so, with 
an eye to releasing a “Best Practice” example once we’re done.

Thanks,
Kieren.
_______________________

Kieren MacMillan, composer
www:  <http://www.kierenmacmillan.info>
email:  address@hidden

WithersCarol_example.ly
Description: Binary data