Re: Best practices in lyric typesetting

[Arle Lommel]

MS,

> Putting aside the impossibility of the attached exercise, you'll see that the 
> lyrics stay shifted way down for the part of the attached example that moves 
> to D major.

I ran into the reverse problem with pedal markings the other day: they were 
*not* aligned (and in fact seemed to behave like you want lyrics to. I can 
testify that the misalignments that resulted until I put the pedal markings 
into their own context was *seriously* disruptive visually. And that was for 
something relatively minor. If lyrics jumped around, I would personally find it 
rather disruptive as a singer, especially since vertical alignment sometimes is 
not just a matter of aesthetics but also of semantics, as when an alternative 
bass lyric is written below a primary lyric. So if the signers see lines 
jumping about, how will they know what the correct interpretation is?

Of course, as others have pointed out, you can probably resolve your situation 
by using ottava marks to keep things more neatly in the staff. I agree that the 
gap below the staff is very difficult to deal with and understand your 
motivation, but I think the solution would be to find a way to eliminate the 
cause of the gap, if possible.

(That said, although I don't have the solution, I am 100% in favor of leaving 
the system flexible enough to allow people to do what they want. You never know 
in advance when something you consider out of the question will not only be 
possible but may even be the best solution in a context you never thought of.)

Best,

Arle