Re: Discussing typographical standards

[Alexander Kobel]

On 03/25/2014 01:10 AM, Simon Albrecht wrote:
> The following is completely off-topic, but I’d like to share some
> observations I often make and thoughts I have and ask for your opinion:

Hi Simon,

just a few random thoughts to your remarks; I'll try to keep it short.

> – For what I know of best practice in typography, it is normally
> unnecessary to use slurs for indicating melismata. [...]

This discussion popped up several times already.  IIRC, we always agreed 
not to agree:  Singers of old (in particular, Renaissance) music expect 
that there are long melismata all over a piece, and prefer not to have 
huge slurs in their scores.  Singers of more modern music, where 
melismata often are only a few notes, prefer slurs.  I -- as a singer 
familiar with both -- am confused whenever a piece of one epoch uses the 
style of the other.

> – The default Denemo output reflects the now common, but faulty practice
> of writing syl- la- ble instead of syl - la - ble  [...]

Ugh.  Ugly, but Denemo's fault.  Do they have an internal representation 
of "proper" hyphens?  I cannot imagine that the person who wrote the 
exporter is so unfamiliar with LilyPond's syntax to mix that up.

> – The beginning of the first recitative is a good example where
> inserting a line break at half-measure would significantly improve the
> visual impression by a more even horizontal spacing. [...]

Agreed.  On a side note, I also use this when the chorus of a song comes 
first, and several stanzas follow on an upbeat; that's simply to avoid 
lyrics dangling in the middle of nowhere deep below a staff.

> The disadvantage is that there is no possibility to
> differ in likeliness between mid-measure and full-measure breaks, which
> would then be desirable.

Definitively.

> – As always, the default margins are too small.  [...]

Agreed, but...

> I once read a comprehensive article
> <http://www.dante.de/tex/Dokumente/KohmSatzspiegel.pdf> (in German) on
> this topic from the German Tex user group’s magazine, and the author
> pointed out that in medieval manuscripts and renaissance prints an
> outstandingly pleasing appearance is achieved by page margins which
> cover up half of the page’s space! This is luxury, of course, [...]

... that's not only luxury, it's a hindrance for sheet music IMHO.  Page 
turns are not a huge deal when reading a novel; they are when you're 
busy waving your hands in front of a choir, need to keep your fingers on 
the keys or strings, or even if the noise of turning a page is too loud 
for a singer.  And larger sheets are impractical too, for several 
reasons.  Unless you need to hide from your conductor... ;-)

In the engraving you refering to, I agree the margins are a tad too 
small, but I'd trade the staff size for it (and the "boldness" of the 
Feta font, if it were easy to change):  I like the horizontal density of 
the notes e.g. on page 7.  (Barring some alignment issues, e.g. on the 
clef change in m. 67.)  If however the staff size is required for 
reading at some distance when playing: Forget about the margins, let my 
hands stay at the strings.

> – In order to increase legibility and clarity it’s also much advisable
> to use at least one StaffGroup, [...]

Sure.  Again, Denemo's fault (or the user didn't specify it).  At least 
not Lily's.


Just my two Satoshi...


Best,
Alexander