RE: Writing psalms

[Paul Harouff]

I transcribe a lot of chant music and discovered that using the \breve and
putting the lyrics in quotes looks awful with more than a couple of words.
The justification never looked right, and the word spacing was always odd.
Instead I have found that the following works better.

Use \H for hidden notes so the spacing remains consistent across the entire
measure.
Use \NL when a measure must be broken in the middle.
Use \NM for normal measure breaks.

I deleted stuff that isn't important for the example:


\paper {
}

Global = {
}

% Hidden Note
H = { \hideNotes c'4 \unHideNotes }
% New Measure
NM = { \cadenzaOff \bar "|" \cadenzaOn }
% New Line
NL = { \cadenzaOff \bar ":" \break \cadenzaOn }

\score { \new ChoirStaff <<
        \new Staff = women <<
                \clef treble
                \key f \major
                \new Voice = "Soprano" {\voiceOne \cadenzaOn
            #(set-accidental-style 'voice)
            g'4 g'4 g'4 g'4 a'2 a'4 \H \H \H \H \H \H \H \H \NL 
\H \H \H \H a'4 bes'4 c''2( bes'2) a'2 \NM
            a'4 \H \H \H \H \H \H \H \H \H \H a'4 g'2 g'4 g'4 f'2 \NM
            g'4 g'4 a'2 a'4 \H \H \H \H \H \H \H a'4 bes'4 c''2( bes'2) a'2
\NM
            a'4 \H \H \H \H \H a'4 g'2 f'2 \NM
            a'4 g'4 a'4 bes'2 a'4 bes'4 a'2( g'2) f'1 \bar "|."
                        } 
                \new Voice = "Alto" {\voiceTwo \cadenzaOn
            #(set-accidental-style 'voice)
            e'4 e'4 e'4 e'4 f'2 f'4 \H \H \H \H \H \H \H \H \NL 
\H \H \H \H f'4 f'4 f'2( f'2) f'2 \NM
            f'4 \H \H \H \H \H \H \H \H \H \H f'4 e'2 e'4 e'4 c'2 \NM
            e'4 e'4 f'2 f'4 \H \H \H \H \H \H \H f'4 f'4 f'2( f'2) f'2 \NM
            f'4 \H \H \H \H \H f'4 e'2 c'2 \NM
            f'4 d'4 f'4 f'2 f'4 f'4 f'2( e'2) c'1 \bar "|."
                        }
                \new Lyrics \lyricsto "Soprano" { \set fontSize = #+2
           You were a disc- i- ple of Christ and a mem- ber of the 
di- vine col- lege of A- pos- tles.
           Hav- ing been weak in faith you doubt- ed the Re- sur- rec- tion
of Christ.
           But by feel- ing the wounds you be- lieved in His all- pure pas-
"sion:"
           Pray now to Him, O all- praised Tho- mas 
           to grant us peace and great mer- cy.
                        }
                >>
        \new Staff = men <<
                \clef bass
                \key f \major
                \new Voice = "Tenor" {\voiceOne \cadenzaOn
            #(set-accidental-style 'voice)
            c'4 c'4 c'4 c'4 c'2 c'4 \H \H \H \H \H \H \H \H \NL 
\H \H \H \H c'4 d'4 ees'2( d'2) c'2 \NM
            c'4 \H \H \H \H \H \H \H \H \H \H c'4 bes2 bes4 bes4 a2 \NM
            c'4 c'4 c'2 c'4 \H \H \H \H \H \H \H c'4 d'4 ees'2( d'2) c'2 \NM
            c'4 \H \H \H \H \H c'4 bes2 a2 \NM
            c'4 bes4 c'4 d'2 c'4 d'4 c'2( bes2) a1 \bar "|."
                        }
                \new Voice = "Bass" {\voiceTwo \cadenzaOn
            #(set-accidental-style 'voice)
            c4 f4 f4 f4 f2 f4 \H \H \H \H \H \H \H \H \NL 
\H \H \H \H f4 <bes, bes>4 <a, a>2( <bes, bes>2) f2 \NM
            f4 \H \H \H \H \H \H \H \H \H \H f4 c2 c4 c4 f2 \NM
            c4 f4 f2 f4 \H \H \H \H \H \H \H f4 <bes, bes>4 <a, a>2( <bes,
bes>2) f2 \NM
            f4 \H \H \H \H \H f4 c2 f2 \NM
            f4 g4 f4 bes2 f4 bes4 c2( c2) f1 \bar "|."
                        }
                >>
    >>
        \layout { \context { \Staff 
                        \remove "Time_signature_engraver" 
                        }
        }
        \header { 
                piece = "Troparion for Apostle Thomas (Oct 6/Oct 19)"
                opus = "Tone 2 - Lvov/Bachmetev"
                }
}
 

Paul
Madison, AL

-----Original Message-----
From: Dmytro O. Redchuk
Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 5:21 AM
Subject: Re: Writing psalms


I use for this smth like[1]:

% in melody:
\cadenzaOn
a8 a\breve a8
\cadenzaOff

% and in lyrics:
%....
la "la la la li lo lo li la la" li
%....