Re: hymns: chords vs. voices

[mike99]

Thanks to all for the replies. An approach using chord structure would seem
difficult, since the voices are not kept separate. The <<  \\  >> and << { }
\\ {} >> structures should work, but don't seem very elegant compared to
writing separate voices. After some initial discussion with someone in the
project group, I had all but decided to go with voices written separately on
the staves (standard polyphony), and had typed up several songs that way.
Then I got feedback from someone else that the chord notation for choir is
also widely adopted in Europe, and also took a closer look at Carl's
example.


Carl Sorensen-3 wrote:
> 
> Mike,
> 
> Hymns are one of my major uses for LilyPond.  I prefer the chord method,
> as
> it's standard in the US.  I do it using partcombine, with a hack that
> lyrics
> are set to a hidden voice that's up an octave.
> 
> I've attached a copy of a hymn that I've written, to show how this works.
> 

Carl's method of using partcombine allows for keeping the voice inputs
separate. This makes the code clearer, and is encouraging since it's still
undecided which notation to adopt; by changing a few declarations I could
use either method (minus tweaks).

Carl, I went about implementing my own instance of a song and quickly ran
into three snags, which, although not covered by your example, are common.
The snags are described below, and I've extracted four measures and attached
them as an example for illustration. Would you mind sharing your experience
on how you deal with them?

http://old.nabble.com/file/p27207893/sample2.png 

1.  Notes of common pitch and duration result in the text "a2" being set
above the staff (to notate a due), as in measures 1, 2, and 4. The hymnal I
have that uses chord notation ("Songs of Faith and Praise") sets displays
this as two separate voices (i.e., an exception to the chord notation) with
one note head and a stem in each direction, as this snippet would produce:
   \relative c'' { << b \\ b >> }
The manual says setting printPartCombineTexts to "false" suppresses the a
due marking. Do you modify the behavior to add a second stem, or just accept
the default with one stem?
A related issue is how collision avoidance is handled. I changed the alto
voice in measure 2 to have a b-flat in order to show that partcombine uses
one stem with two note heads, whereas it's preferable to use standard
polyphony (creating an exception from the chord notation), as discussed in
my  previous post.

2.  As in your example, the lyrics are set to an extra instance of the
soprano voice, which is set an octave above and hidden. The slur in measure
3, however, is visible.

3.  Chords within a voice cause the voices to be typeset separately, as in
the bass clef in measure four. I intuitively expected partcombine to use one
stem.


I need to learn about using \context vs. \new declarations, and study up on
the effects of \shiftOnn, which in this example caused some misalignment of
lyrics, but this is looks promising.

Thanks for your help,
Mike

http://old.nabble.com/file/p27207893/sample.ly sample.ly 

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