On Jun 21, 2004, at 1:53 PM, Owain Sutton wrote:
I'm facing a (slightly embarassing) situation - for the first time ever, I'm dealing with a vocal score. However, I'm naive in how conventions differ from instrumental music (positioning of dynamics, beaming, etc)....could anybody point me to an online resource that details at least the major ones of these?
I don't know about an online resource, but I can give some quick answers on the basics.
Dynamics for the voice part almost always go above the staff. Put them below only in an extreme situation, if ever. Likewise for any marking for the vocalist other than lyrics.
Beaming is a tricky question. There is a strong tradition in the classical genre to use beaming to indicate syllabification. That is, two notes which are not sung on the same syllable must never be connected by a beam. This originates from the days when long melismas were common, and thus syllabic beaming made the music easier to read. Since then, the tradition has persisted, even into music in which a syllable is rarely if ever are sung on more than one note, with the result that the entire vocal part is unbeamed.
At the same time, in most non-classical genres the standard practice is to beam a vocal part the same as one would beam a part for any other instrument, with no regard to syllables. Many editors of classical vocal music have adopted the same standard, which is thus sometimes called "modern beaming", as opposed to "traditional beaming".
The debate between the two can be heated, with strong opinions on both sides. Some singers loathe modern beaming, while others think that traditional beaming is as foolishly outdated and hard-to-read as an obsolete clef. You'd be well-advised to take care in choosing which style to adopt. Obviously the genre of the music will have a lot to do with your decision.
mdl
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