On Fri 10 Jul 2026 at 13:30:50 (+0200), Lilypond-User wrote: > In the original edition of im André Arnesens Magnificat (we are > waiting a few months already for the paid-for parts to arrive from the > USA to the Netherlands...) the f4. only has stem-up, so I didn't write > it in the second part.
They set it like that because the alto parts are written like piano chords (shared stems, tails up) except where the rhythms differ¹. As you set it, the measures preceding the f4. are set as two parts, which makes it seem as if the second altos stop the phrase early. It looks, from measures 33-34, as if they deliberately change notation at the barline, flipping the stem in the second alto part. I haven't checked to see whether they do that elsewhere in the score. (I do notice that the ties and slurs are rather odd at the page break between measures 35-36, and inconsistent with the similar 37-38.) > I have no idea what the difference is between American hymn books and > English ones, wasn't aware of those two styles... I'm not home with my books, but quite at random google turned up https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91ALm2PEOUL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg from Hymns Ancient & Modern, where stem directions distinguish the parts that share each staff, even where they might happen to cross. The Episcopal Hymnal 1982 is the only American example I know of that follows that style. OTOH, most US hymn books in my small collection are set like https://hymnary.org/page/fetch/CH1995/232/low/233 from the Chalice Hymnal, constantly switching between the (default) chords, and divided parts only where necessitated. ¹ page 27 of the conductor's score: I just downloaded it from https://sbmp.com/Art/PDFInstrumentParts/SBMP1306%20-%20Magnificat%20[Perusal%20Conductor%20Score%20SATB].pdf Cheers, David.
