Friends,
The issue of how many stanzas to interline in a grand staff in a hymnal
is very much culturally informed. The most recent hymnal I own published
in England (/Common Praise/. Norwich UK, 2001) is printed with at most
one stanza interlined, and that only when scansion is particularly
obscure. Most hymn texts in both full music and melody editions have the
hymn tune printed in a block (on rare occasions with a single stanza
underlaid), and the text blocked below or on a facing page. And
interestingly enough, on the British email list to which I subscribe
consisting mainly of adult choristers in English Cathedral Choirs, the
nearly unanimous consensus is that it is much easier to read the text
and sing the harmony when the music is separate from the text. The
prevailing method seems to be to glance at the text, and read a line,
and then read the music while singing the lower parts (and since these
are adults, mostly men, these singers are singing the alto, tenor and
bass). To a man, they seem all to dislike interlined stanzas.
On the other hand, singers from the US seem to be fanatically in favor
of interlining as many stanzas as possible; I've heard complaints from a
number of singers about non-interlined texts.
ns
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