Hi all, > All the hymnals I have at home, from quite a number of different editors in > France and the French part of Switzerland, follow the rule of using stems up > for soprano and tenor and down for alto and bass.
Having sung, performed, played (organ), and conducted in many different churches of many different religious denominations across many different regions of North America — including central and west-coast Canada, and northern, north-eastern, and southwestern United States — it has always seemed to me that there is a strong correlation between “academic” practices in the geographical area and/or denomination and the split-stem engraving convention. Put another way: people who have a lot of experience with “classical choral music” (Bach et al.) seem to like to split stems in their hymnals, and people who have more experience just playing piano seem to like writing the vocal parts like piano parts. But this is absolutely, admittedly, an anecdotal observation. I have done no objective study on the matter. Cheers, Kieren. __________________________________________________ My work day may look different than your work day. Please do not feel obligated to read or respond to this email outside of your normal working hours.
