Re: Is this reasonable/playable (guitar)?

[David Kastrup]

Thomas Morley <address@hidden> writes:

> 2014-03-05 20:49 GMT+01:00 David Kastrup <address@hidden>:
>>
>>> I am not top-posting
>>
>> I want to avoid ossia staves.  They seem reasonably self-evident as
>> alternatives for the potentially less playable runs (probably the end is
>> the clincher).  But how bad are those, anyway?  The Midi sounds doable.
>> And I am too lazy to look for my guitar and skills.
>
> Hi David,
>
> others already said a lot about the guitar part.
> Let me write something about the melody and distribution of the text.
>
> I feel the melismata in the first part of the song are strange.
>
> Why not
>
> \version "2.18.0"
>
> \relative  {
>   \key d \dorian
>   \time 3/4
>   \partial 4 d'4
>   f2 g4 |
>   a4.( b8) a4 |
>   g2 e4 |
>   c4.
> }
>
> \addlyrics { A -- las, my love, you do me wrong }
>
>
> as you do in the second part?

In "reality", I have a wide variety of syllable distributions for the
various stanzas, depending on word stresses and stuff.  Putting that
down would effectively have precluded using slurs and
\addlyrics/\lyricsto (too many exceptions then).  Basically I tend to
use "early starts" on the third beat when on a stressed syllable, but
there is also a difference on whether it's up or down.

I was too lazy to figure out a scheme and representation matching each
stanza exactly to what I perform.  The version here is more often close
to what I use than not, putting a bit more of "excitement" into the
stanzas than into the refrain.

It is to be expected that people singing this by heart (which is really
the only sensible way to do it) will have it morph into something better
fitting their personal taste as well as the syllable/stress
distribution.

I'm not entirely convinced of all the distributions I use myself.
Putting out a somewhat overmechanic version makes it more likely that
the performers will rebel where appropriate, possibly finding better
solutions than when given a "good enough" distribution.

I did fix some syllables for the last stanza since they were actually
horrible rather than so-so.

> Though, it's your arrangement, your decision.
> Just my 2ct


-- 
David Kastrup