some quick and dirty answers ... (I'm really supposed to be at work here) (1) Old convention is that beaming followed the melismas. That is, each syllable got one beam group, and so, for example, each note would normally get a single note with a flag. Modern convention is to beam the same way as instruments. There was a discussion a while back on this this on the merits of both -- personally as someone who started on instruments and moved to vocals, I find the modern beaming style easier. Others have said the older convention is easier to follow. (2) Main rule is avoid collision/confusion of dynamics and instructions with lyrics. Generally, try to place dynamics (p, pp, f) in such a way that they cannot be confused with lyric text -- I find this fairly hard to do sometimes, and requires some imagination, especially if you're trying to also fit too much stuff on the page. Ditto for tempo indications and instructions - try not to make them look like lyrics, or the singer will get confused. Usually this is done by putting the instructions above the staff and the lyrics below, but not everyone follows this convention either. It also can be difficult in multipart music. (3) If you can afford the white space on the page, use it. With lyrics, you will have a lot going on as it is. This is especially true since choral music, for example, will often show all the choral lines and then either a piano part or a condensed orchestral part. (again, usually.) With all that busy-ness, the more you can help the singer find her part, the better the rehearsals (and performances). Imagine if everyone in an orchestra had to read from the full score! (4) Spacing usually follows the words as opposed to following the note-values. Again, as someone who started in instruments I find this disorienting, but it seems to be what singers are used to. There are, of course exceptions to this too, as I also see vocal music with spacing more heavily towards note values than word placement. (5) There has been much discussion on this list about syllabification. I think the consensus is to use dictionary syllabification. (6) Most of the other considerations you give to instrumentals apply to vocals. For example, make the page turns convenient. Just because singers have both hands free doesn't mean that a good page turn won't help.
----- Original Message ----- From: Owain Sutton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Monday, June 21, 2004 10:53 am Subject: [Finale] Basic guide to vocal scores? > 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? > _______________________________________________ > Finale mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale > _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
