Re: Combining voices in American Hymns

[J Martin Rushton]

On 13/09/16 22:32, David Wright wrote:
> On Tue 13 Sep 2016 at 21:56:04 (+0100), J Martin Rushton wrote:
>> On 12/09/16 19:21, Karlin High wrote:
>>> On 9/7/2016 11:56 PM, David F. wrote:
>>>> Is there a way to combine two voices and print both stems (up and down) 
>>>> when the voices share a note?  \partcombine does not appear to do this by 
>>>> default.
>>>>
>>>> American SATB hymns are typically engraved with the soprano and alto 
>>>> voices combined and the tenor and bass voices combined.  If a note in the 
>>>> soprano voice has the same duration as the note in the alto voice, then 
>>>> the notes for soprano and alto will share a stem.  If the durations are 
>>>> different, then there is no sharing.  And if the notes are the same 
>>>> duration and the same pitch, then the note with have both an up stem and a 
>>>> down stem.
>>>
>>> You're not alone with difficulties on American-style part combining. 
>>> Another LilyPond user shared some of her work with me, and I'm still 
>>> studying the approach she uses. Below is a small example I'm using for 
>>> experiments. I'm not very familiar with the inner workings of LilyPond; 
>>> maybe someone will take one look and say, "That will mostly work, but 
>>> you will run into problems with such-and-such situations."
>>> --
>>> Karlin High
>>> Missouri, USA
>> <snip>
>>
>> How is this "American-style"?  It sounds just the same as hymnbooks on
>> this side of the pond have done since (at least) the 19thC.  I tried to
>> enclose a scan of "Hymns Ancient & Modern" (the standard Anglican
>> hymnbook) of 1868 but it was rejected as too large [sorry moderator].
>> Briefly: SA in the treble clef, TB in the bass, note heads combined
>> where appropriate with the stems indicating which voice they apply to.
>> Is this not what you were describing?
> 
> Three examples attached. The words in the English style will be
> printed below. (This post is an oversimplification.)
> 
> Cheers,
> David.
> 
OK, thanks.  Atlantic & English are common in hymnbooks here - the old
(1923?) Methodist hymnbook used both styles.  I can now see the American
is different.  Slightly OT: how does the American system differentiate
when the voices cross?  For example between E for Alto + G for Soprano
compared to E for S + G for A.

Regards,
Martin

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