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Re: \accidentalStyle for common choir notation


From: Jonathan Scholbach
Subject: Re: \accidentalStyle for common choir notation
Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2016 19:07:41 +0200
User-agent: K-9 Mail for Android

Sorry, guys, for being so rude. But can we talk about LP-features instead of arguing about best-practice-typesetting? That would be nice :)
To me, this discussion is somewhat obsolete. A good program should leave the decision to the user. And that's where LP is failing at the moment, cause user cannot choose the option very many - not to say: the very most - engravers of choir scores opted for.
\accidentalStyle piano works in GrandStaff, but is needed in ChoirStaff. So can somebody please be so kind to invest her energy, time and skills into this problem instead of wasting her capacities in a discussion about a question which is at least in part a matter of personal taste? I tried to manipulate the scm/music-functions.scm but, since I do not understand it, without success.

Thank you ever so much for your help,

Jonathan

Am 14. Juli 2016 18:34:36 MESZ, schrieb David Wright <address@hidden>:
On Wed 22 Jun 2016 at 11:30:30 (+0100), Phil Holmes wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "David Wright"
<address@hidden>
To: "Jonathan Scholbach" <address@hidden>
Cc: "Phil Holmes" <address@hidden>; <address@hidden>
Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2016 5:45 PM
Subject: Re: \accidentalStyle for common choir notation


On Tue 21 Jun 2016 at 14:53:08 (+0200), Jonathan Scholbach wrote:
At your other point: Well, I agree that the usage of the desired
\accidentalStyle can be a matter of discussion. But it is a very common
practice. And there are good arguments for using it (choirsingers often
orientate - consciously or unconsciously - on the harmonies they are
hearing in the other voices.). Anyway, my question was not about best
practice of typesetting but about the realisation of a certain feature
in LilyPond. I would be grateful, if we stuck to this original question.

Sure, I understand (y)our problem; I call it "selling a dummy" (as
in rugger).

Not at all. The question referred to voices and the illustration
showed staves. I was checking what the OP was really seeking.

Phil Holmes wrote:
What you're asking for is not adding a natural when there's a previous
sharp in a different /voice/, but in a different /staff/. As a
long-time singer myself, I'd find that terribly confusing. If the 2
voices are on the same staff, I could understand it.

It seems odd that this should confuse people because it's standard
fare in LP's piano music, under "Automatic accidentals" in the
Notation Manual. As the effect is acoustic, the staff is immaterial;
you might be singing from your own staff or even your own partbook.

Again, not at all. Piano players must read more than one staff at a
time, and therefore an accidental on one staff might be felt to
affect pitches on other staves. Singers (like orchestral players)
have no need to see the music of the other voices (and, indeed a few
hundred years ago, never did). They certainly have no need to follow
accidentals in other voices in case they affect what they sing.
Good singers just sing the note they're given. Imagine having a
fiddle part with an accidental cancellation shown because the
bassoon had been playing a sharp in the previous bar.

I find it very dismissive of you to write 'not at all' twice above.
Simon has already commented on the fact that different singers find
their pitches in different ways, even when they are 'good' singers,
whatever that means. (I think here we mean good readers rather than
their particular singing ability.)

But I've just been given a copy of Vocal Selections from "West Side
Story" and I notice there are many instances of added accidentals
(both parenthesised and not) in both the piano and the vocal parts.
Some of these are obviously what I termed acoustical: otherwise why
print B natural accidentals in a song in C major when the singer has
yet to sing a B of any persuasion, and even after he *has* sung
B naturals.

So I think the engravers wisely decided to ignore your pronouncements.

Cheers,
David.

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