On Jan 14, 2010, at 1:45 AM, dhbailey wrote:
The main reason would be so that the people singing the alto, tenor and bass lines can see how the words line up with the music -- anybody can follow the melody but it gets much harder for the harmony parts to parse the lyrics to the music when they're not printed between the staves. Any good hymnal editor is going to put multi-page hymns on facing pages, so a page turn wouldn't be necessary for most 6 verse hymns. That 17-verse hymn by Charles Wesley which someone mentioned a couple of posts back would certainly need a page turn, as well as an extra shot of caffeine to stay awake while singing all the verses! ;-)
If I'm singing tenor or bass I hate that my words are six lines away from my notes on the first verse, and if I'm singing alto I hate that my words are six lines away from my notes on the last verse. And no matter what part I'm singing, I hate that during the middle verses my eye isn't quite sure where to go when I start a new line.
When I say "three and three" I'm suggesting that you copy the music on a second page so that three verses are between the staves on page one and three verses are between the staves on page two. Ideally this is done on facing pages, but even if there must be a page turn at least it happens only once in the piece, between verses 3 and 4.
I am not suggesting that extra verses be printed as text outside the music, which I think we all agree is bad.
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