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List:       lilypond-user
Subject:    Re: Early (very early) project: The Celtic Song Book (c) 1928
From:       Kieren MacMillan <kieren_macmillan () sympatico ! ca>
Date:       2021-10-28 16:33:06
Message-ID: 1DF2E797-9748-47D7-8D19-8643C1A4BF8E () sympatico ! ca
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Hi Valentin,

> > - In older music with lyrics it was common to see beams broken for each
> > syllable. Today it's common practice to not do that.

> That is not totally a thing of old practise/new practice.
> Conventional vocal practise is to have beams align with melismas.

As an engraver, and as both a choral conductor and singer, I must disagree: the \
overwhelming majority of contemporary choral scores exhibit "instrumental beaming" \
(i.e., beaming to the beat/meter) — it is now the convention (a.k.a. "new \
practice") — and melismatic beaming (a.k.a. "old practice") is almost unseen \
nowadays.

This is confirmed by Elaine Gould in "Behind Bars" (p. 435): "Until well into the \
twentieth century, a separate tail was used for each syllable in vocal music, and \
notes within a beat were beamed only to indicate that a syllable took more than one \
note. […] Instrumental beaming (i.e. beaming into beats) is now used in vocal music \
together with syllabic slurs".

Cheers,
Kieren.
________________________________

Kieren MacMillan, composer (he/him/his)
‣ website: www.kierenmacmillan.info
‣ email: kieren@kierenmacmillan.info


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