My usual layout when typesetting hymns is a ChoirStaff, with SA-TB
voices, main lyrics printed between staves, ...
I was wondering, what is the best practice for positioning the
dynamics ? Above or below the staves ? Should them be printed only
once for all the ChoirStaff, or for each staff?
Gould says (p 465, under "Choral writing"):
_Dynamics, expression marks and technical instructions_: place these
above each individual stave so that each singer can see them
immediately (avoid a single instruction above the top stave, as this
will most certainly be overlooked).
and (p 468):
Two-stave SATB layout
Place dynamics and expression marks above the treble stave and below
the bass stave, to apply to both voices on each stave.
Brian Barker
Thank you for your detailed and documented answer. I guess the first
case is for 4 staves choral layout, so the dynamics don't collide or
interfere with lyrics.
I was thinking of doing something similar to what is described in the
second case. For the bass staff, I can place dynamics below, and hope
it won't be a problem if there are some "echo" lyrics (that will go
below the staff as well).
For the treble staff, I was wondering, won't it be confusing, as there
are chord names above it as well ?
Would it be enough if I put dynamics only once below the ChoirStaff ?
Yann