At 11:30 PM -0400 7/20/12, Christopher Smith wrote: >The words I have to hyphenate (obviously on different notes) are > >"Anti-Semitism" >"Terrorism" >"Paganism" >Would all these be "is-m"? > >"howl" on two notes, maybe "how-l"? > >the acronym "J.W.B." on five notes. I'm thinking >"J. dou-ble-U. B." but maybe no hyphen after >"dou-ble"? It follows several other acronyms >that I have rendered as one-syllable letters >with periods. > >"attire" on three notes, maybe "at-ti-re" but >that doesn't look right. I imagine it would be >the same as "fire" in two syllables, but I can't >recall ever having seen it.
Personal opinion: Your friendly local dictionary is the best reference. But what you're asking about isn't grammar, it's style, so that would be covered in the Chicago Style Manual (probably up to about its 50th edition!) or the APA (American Psychological Association) Style Manual. I agree (by eye) with most of your examples, although I'm not sure about writing out the names of letters either. But "attire" is a two-syllable word, so I wouldn't try to make three syllables out of it. Rather slur one of the syllables. (For the most part a syllable requires a vowel, and a final silent "e" doesn't count because it isn't pronounced. I could argue that "r" is a liquid consonant that functions as a vowel, as in the words "bird" or "girl," but I won't in this case!) I've had students try to do things like this, and subdividing words into individual phonemes rather than actual syllables almost always makes them very difficult to read. (And yeah, I know Sinatra did it all the time, but hey, he was Sinatra!!) "Howl" is one syllable (to a singer), even though it contains 4 phonemes. I'd suggest slurring it and not hyphenating it. In general, micro-managing the English language will only serve to confuse a singer, NOT to make it more exact. There are some things that MUST be decided by the individual singer (or choir director). Fred Waring attempted to regularize it with his "tone syllables," and it worked for those who understood them, but baffled those who did not. > >which brings up another point, "the attire is >informal-so come just as you are." is the line. >I should include the M-dash, but it feels like >it should be between syllables like a hyphen, >not stuck to "in-for-mal-" with a long space >afterward the way it presently is. What is the >right thing to do here? I would have no problem >inserting the M-dash as an expression if that is >indeed the right thing. Grammatically I'd say that the m-dash is incorrect and should be a comma instead. The second clause is dependent and "so" is connective, not an independent thought. It would be worth checking on proper usage of the m-dash, which can be tricky. (Again, probably the Chicago Style Manual.) But if you have to use it I'd connect it to the previous syllable (as you did), as you would a comma, colon, or semi-colon. But it WILL be confused with a hyphen. Just personal opinion, but I am used to critical reading of student papers. John -- John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music Virginia Tech Department of Music School of Performing Arts & Cinema College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences 290 College Ave., Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[email protected]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html "Machen Sie es, wie Sie wollen, machen Sie es nur schön." (Do it as you like, just make it beautiful!) --Johannes Brahms _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
