On 20/11/2012 16:25, Fr. Michael Gilmary, mma wrote: > Hi everybody: > > Here's a general question that's bothered me for some time ... because > I'm not a musician or composer --- > > when setting lyrics to music, is it ever acceptable to join eighth > notes across syllables or even across words? > > > I have been told by a reliable expert (hi Rembrandt!) that joining the > eighth notes across syllables/words is never done ... but I have > examples like the second one here from a very accomplished composer. > Maybe he just isn't familiar with how to prevent his program from > joining them. It certainly makes for difficult reading of the lyrics, > IMHO.
In the 18th and 19th century, melismas were indicated by beams, so back then the eights would never get beamed, unless they were a melisma (i.e. belonged to the same syllable). However, modern and contemporary notation will use the same beaming as for instruments and instead indicate melismas with slurs. So, it's basically a convention and your choice whether you want to use the traditional way (never beam notes across syllables) or the modern notation practice. As a (classical) singer, I have to admit, I'm always confused by the modern notation and sight-reading takes much more effort than with the traditional notation. That might, however, also be due to me being used only to the traditional notation. Cheers, Reinhold -- ------------------------------------------------------------------ Reinhold Kainhofer, reinh...@kainhofer.com, http://www.kainhofer.com * Financial & Actuarial Math., Vienna Univ. of Technology, Austria * http://www.fam.tuwien.ac.at/, DVR: 0005886 * Edition Kainhofer, Music Publisher, http://www.edition-kainhofer.com
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