At 4:54 PM -0800 1/9/10, Ryan wrote:
Hi,
Just curious if any of you have a limit on the minimum size of lyrics in a
score, or if there's a general rule of thumb I should follow.
In Mosaic I used 12 point for entering lyrics (so I could read them
on screen), then changed them to 10 point for the final layout, using
16 point or 18 point staves for choral scores. But once you get into
system reductions I'm lost. Mosaic didn't have that capability.
I'm preparing a score with lyrics set at 13 point. I'm using a system
reduction of 50%, giving me a "real" size of 6.5 point. While I feel it's
proportional to the size of the music, it's not very legible to a conductor
who's trying to lead the orchestra and chorus. But, I'm curious if it really
matters to the conductor. The choral parts will be larger, and I doubt the
chorus master would use the full score to rehearse.
Damn right it's important to the conductor! Rehearsal starts or
corrections for singers are often given in terms of lyrics, much more
often than rehearsal letters or numbers.
I could bump up the lyric size to 16 point, giving me a "real" size of 8
point. But since the choral octavo is linked to the score, the lyrics will
be too large. I could use a fixed point size, but I'm not happy with how
Finale spaces lyrics of a fixed point size.
Do whatever you have to to make the lyrics properly sized in BOTH the
score and the vocal score. In my opinion 8 point is still too small.
Should I not worry about the conductor's eyes, or is there a solution to the
problem?
Worry about the eyes, and just leave enough room for the lyrics.
Speaking as a conductor, of course, and not an engraver for the
moment. I've had to read too many scores and too many parts that had
used system reduction just because it's too easy to do in Finale, and
the engraver was more concerned with number of pages than with
readability! I recommend putting readability FIRST in your
priorities.
John
--
John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music
Virginia Tech Department of Music
College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[email protected])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
"We never play anything the same way once." Shelly Manne's definition
of jazz musicians.
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