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Topic: Variant melody/rhythm for verses (Read 3909 times) previous topic - next topic

Variant melody/rhythm for verses

In a song with multiple verses, there may be places where one of the verses uses a slight variation in rhythm (and possibly the pitch) due to an extra/missing syllable or two or a different cadence in the lyrics. In printed music I've seen this is usually represented with the primary melody shown in full size notes, and the variant rhythm/melody shown in smaller notes and rests, with the lyrics for the affected verses aligned to these notes. Is there a way to do this in NoteWorthy?

Re: Variant melody/rhythm for verses

Reply #1 –
Not directly as a "predefined" function in NWC, but it is easy enough to do:

Regarding the large/small notes: Keep in mind that virtually any font (including NWCV15 itself) can be specified as a "user" font and used as text. Text can be placed virtually anywhere in relation to the staff and its notes. You can use grace note symbols as "text" for the little notes. Be aware that "text" and "lyrics" are two different things.

In the lyric editor, you would specify several lines of lyrics. Wherever a verse has a "missing" syllable, use the underscore character. This does not print on your music, but causes the lyrics to skip a note.

Keep in mind that the above strategy works fine for the printed page. But it will not cause your verses to sound different, since the text-inserted notation are not "real" notes interpeted by MIDI.

If you want to squeeze multiple words onto a single note withoutrunningthemalltogetherlikethis, you can use the infamous non-breaking space, at code .0160 on the character map, just before the inverted exclamation point. The non-breaking space looks and prints as a space, but is not interpreted as a space by the NWC lyrics editor.

Hope that helps.

Re: Variant melody/rhythm for verses

Reply #2 –
One more thing: You may wish to have some lyrics in a regular font, some in italics. The NWC lyrics editor allows only one font. But I pieced together two public-domain fonts, one regular and one italic, as "Generiwest." This free front is available on a link for the NWC user tips page. How it works is that regular characters are selected as usual from the keyboard, but italic characters occupy the upper codes, selectable from a character map. There is some capability to add diacritical marks, too.

Re: Variant melody/rhythm for verses

Reply #3 –
Yet one more thing: If the NWCV15 font, used as "text," does not have the notes you need, try using my "MusiSync" font as "text" for your grace notes. This free font is at:

http://www.icogitate.com/~ergosum/musisync.zip

Re: Variant melody/rhythm for verses

Reply #5 –
Thanks, Marsu! I don't know the correct URL for my own web pages!!! I'm getting old.

As of yesterday, one of my free fonts, "MusiQwik" is now on Simtel.net (Windows 95/98 collection, Desktop publishing, fonts). If you know anyone who wants to put just a few bars of simple melody in a word document, MusiQwik will do it. Then, perhaps the user will get interested in a real music publishing program such as NWC.

Incidentally, that's how I first came across NWC a few years ago -- Not knowing the technology at the time, I thought that I could accomplish my goal with a font. After fooling around with this and that, I located NWC and have loved it ever since.
 

Re: Variant melody/rhythm for verses

Reply #6 –
Regarding the ability to allow multiple words on one note, you can also accomplish that with the underline character. Just make sure there are no spaces used.

For example, to put the words "My Song" on a single quarter note, just type:

my_song

NWC interprets it as one word, but prints the underscore as a space. Of course, to skip a note, be sure to use spaces between your words and the underscore. For example, if you've to three notes, but only want "my song" to display on the first and third, just type:

my _ song

Thanks,

John