Hi Valentin, >> - In older music with lyrics it was common to see beams broken for each >> syllable. Today it's common practice to not do that.
> That is not totally a thing of old practise/new practice. > Conventional vocal practise is to have beams align with melismas. As an engraver, and as both a choral conductor and singer, I must disagree: the overwhelming majority of contemporary choral scores exhibit “instrumental beaming” (i.e., beaming to the beat/meter) — it is now the convention (a.k.a. “new practice”) — and melismatic beaming (a.k.a. “old practice”) is almost unseen nowadays. This is confirmed by Elaine Gould in “Behind Bars” (p. 435): “Until well into the twentieth century, a separate tail was used for each syllable in vocal music, and notes within a beat were beamed only to indicate that a syllable took more than one note. […] Instrumental beaming (i.e. beaming into beats) is now used in vocal music together with syllabic slurs”. Cheers, Kieren. ________________________________ Kieren MacMillan, composer (he/him/his) ‣ website: www.kierenmacmillan.info ‣ email: kie...@kierenmacmillan.info
