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#2457 Shouldn't simultaneous syllables be aligned across voices?
Accepted
nobody
None
design
Enhancement
2012-03-31
2012-03-30
Anonymous
No
Originally created by: *anonymous
Originally created by: janek.li...@gmail.com
Originally owned by: janek.li...@gmail.com
Lyrics in melismas are left-aligned, while lyrics attached to single notes are usually centered. This can lead to a situation when a lyric syllabe that is sung simultaneously in many voices isn't visually aligned. The problem is noticeable especially when the syllabe is long. See examples here:
http://lilypond-stuff.1065243.n5.nabble.com/examples-for-Lyric-report-simultaneous-syllabes-td5607339.html
one can mistakenly believe that two voices sing words "peace" and "world" earlier than other two voices.
I think it would be good to try to horizontally align simultaneous syllabes (within reason). We could either align them perfectly with each other, or at least reduce the difference in placement. If we decide only to reduce the difference, i suggest moving melismatic syllabes 1/3 of that difference to the left and nonmelismatic syllabes 1/3 to the right. See files linked above.
This issue is a part of the Lyrics Project. See related entries:
issue 2450
issue 2451
issue 2452
issue 2453
issue 2454
issue 2455
issue 2456
issue 2457
issue 2458
issue 2459
issue 2460
issue 2461
issue 2462
Related
Issues: #2450
Issues: #2451
Issues: #2452
Issues: #2453
Issues: #2454
Issues: #2456
Issues: #2458
Issues: #2463
Originally posted by: PhilEHol...@googlemail.com
Gould again, page 439: "Some editions place all syllables consistently to the left of the note, but, in general, this is not helpful."
She (and I) say that it might look better, but I don't believe it would be in any way helpful to a singer. Left aligned == melisma to me, and if it's not, I'm gonna get confused. When I'm checking what other voices are singing, I look for their notes, not their words - in early songs, the words go on for so long you can't check for them!
I could accept cheating the word to the right a bit, but not left aligned.
Summary: Shouldn't simultaneous syllables be aligned across voices?
Originally posted by: janek.li...@gmail.com
ok, leaving melismatic syllabes alone and moving non-melismatic ones to the right seems reasonable to me.
How do you like this: http://lilypond-stuff.1065243.n5.nabble.com/examples-for-Lyric-report-simultaneous-syllabes-td5607339.html#a5608800 ?
(keep in mind that fixing issue 2461 would move these syllabes about 0.2 ss to the left)
Originally posted by: PhilEHol...@googlemail.com
They still look a bit far to the left, so I consulted my Watkins Shaw/Novello. Image attached. Centrally aligned peace in the Alto and Bass...
Originally posted by: janek.li...@gmail.com
Hmm.
Your example is spaced wider because of the orchestra, this makes things more obvious and the need for such alignment is not as big as in my example.
I think that having a user-settable property for this (i.e. how much simultaneous syllabes should align, with 0 meaning "doesn't matter" and 1 "align them perfectly") wouldn't hurt. I'd suggest a default value of 0.5.