Re: Feature request: ‘classic vocal beaming’

[Simon Albrecht]

Am 31.05.2015 um 07:59 schrieb 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,
Partially: beaming, slurs, ties, and manual melismata.
>   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.
Correct me if I’m mistaken, but I think the lyrics are reading the 
melismaBusyProperties of the associatedVoice. Now, Beam_engraver could 
also read the slurMelismaBusy and melismaBusy (perhaps also 
tieMelismaBusy) properties and take them into account.
> 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.
I know it’s possible, but avoid it if I can. I’m very keen to streamline 
the music entering process…
> 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 ]?
Which is only possible if melisma and beam happen to fully coincide, so 
in most cases behaviour wouldn’t change.
>    That does not seem like an improvement.
Firstly: most instances of [ ] would become obsolete if the beams were 
done automatically, as I suggested.
Second: in most cases, slurs are used to indicate melismata.
If slurs are used to indicate articulation rather than melismata (as 
probably with Brahms, for example) or an original, maybe inconsistent, 
configuration shall be reproduced, the situation is different. But in 
that case, redefining shortcuts like `"\[" = \melismaOn` (or whatever) 
can come in very handy.

Yours, Simon