Re: Feature request: ‘classic vocal beaming’

[David Kastrup]

Simon Albrecht <address@hidden> writes:

> Hello,
>
> traditionally[1][2] in vocal music beaming corresponds to melismata:
> if multiple notes are sung to one syllable, they are beamed according
> to normal rules [3], else no beams are used. Currently this is
> achieved through \autoBeamOff and manual beams in melismata, but this
> feels clumsy (apart from being a little tedious) and mixes some
> presentation aspect into content. I imagine that it wouldn’t be so
> difficult to do this automatically: Like with lyrics, the beaming
> procedure might listen to whether a melisma is active. If yes, beam
> the notes, if no, don’t.
> Suggested syntax would be to complement the boolean
> \set autoBeaming ##t resp. \autoBeamOn
> \set autoBeaming ##f resp. \autoBeamOff
> by a third option
> \set autoBeaming #classic-vocal resp. \autoBeamVocal. (or #vocal?
> \autoBeamClassicVocal? I’d be more precise with the former version and
> more concise with the shortcut)

That sounds like a cat chasing its tail.  With \autoBeamOff, melismata
are decided by looking at the beaming, and you want to decide the
beaming by looking at the melismata.

The usual approach of lyrics is to pick the timing of the lyrics off the
related melodic Voice.  Now you want to pick the timing of the melodic
Voice, in particular its beaming, off the lyrics.

It's not impossible but would necessitate spelling out the lyric
durations (I do that sometimes rather than bother getting the syllable
counts correct and synchronized).  But that's quite unpopular and I
don't think many people even realize it is possible.

So I don't really understand where you'll be getting the rhythm for the
lyrics when the beams should be following the lyrics rather than the
other way round.  Write out \melismaOn and similar wherever you now
write [ and ]?  That does not seem like an improvement.

-- 
David Kastrup