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Topic: Synalephe (Read 199 times) previous topic - next topic

Synalephe

Good evening,
When writing text, sometimes two syllables that end and begin with a vowel, appear under the same note. To "join" these syllables, NWC uses empty space. Other programs insert the "synalephe" symbol. I tried inserting this text symbol "‿" with encouraging results. The greatest difficulty is the correct positioning, that is, perfectly between the two syllables. Do you have any suggestions for performing this operation correctly and quickly?
Thank you.
Lorenzo

Re: Synalephe

Reply #1 –
Why not just have it as part of the lyrics  so that the lyrics would say
"Ar-ri-va‿un gril-lo, che‿è mol-to‿ar-zil-lo,"

Unless of course, you need the "synalephe"   to be a different colour.

R. 



Rich.

Re: Synalephe

Reply #2 –
Quote from: Richard Woodroffe –
Why not just have it as part of the lyrics  so that the lyrics would say
"Ar-ri-va‿un gril-lo, che‿è mol-to‿ar-zil-lo,"

Unless of course, you need the "synalephe"   to be a different colour.

R.
I was about to make the same observation, but you beat me to it.  :)

But then I looked at some Spanish sheet music that I have, which makes use of this marking frequently, and I noticed that there seems to be a preference for having the arc slightly overlap the two vowels, with just a single word space between.  And then it occurred to me: I bet it would be possible to have a user object that applied these marks whenever it found a _ character in the middle of a lyric. In fact, I bet that Melismatic.nw could be updated/enhanced to optionally perform this function, via a new option.

Any takers?

Re: Synalephe

Reply #5 –
The solution proposed by Richard is the most practical. You need to find among the various formats (fonts) one in which the "horizontal bracket" character has a curvature that's neither too pronounced nor too open. Then, once the first one is inserted... copy/paste and you're done. The technical solution (object), if implemented, would be automatic, so it's preferable. Thanks.
Lorenzo
 

Re: Synalephe

Reply #6 –
Good morning,
While I wait for some computer scientist on the forum to share their ingenuity in creating the "synalefe" object, I'm updating my tests. The best results are obtained with the text ("x" ---> "horizontal round bracket" pointing upwards). I use the Staff Italic font - Times New Roman, Bold Italic (12.5) and set the percentage to the best (80% or 90%). The font is several screens down, but once you find it and insert it in the first place, you can copy and paste it, as I mentioned. I also discovered that to further separate the two syllables, just add a second underscore to the text. Excellent!
You might be wondering why I'm spending so much time on this aspect, which is purely graphical.
In the Italian language, almost all words end with a vowel, and so sometimes, for metrical reasons, in a sung text, the last syllable of the first word and the first syllable of the second are joined. This union is indicated by the "synalephe" sign.
Some examples from the poem:
Ce-le-e-ste_A-i-da...
Di Pro-ven-za_il mar, il suol...
Quan-do men vo, quan-do men vo so-let-ta per la via,
la gen-te so-sta_e mi-ra...

And now, as a pastor said at the end of a three-quarters of an hour sermon, I'll finish so as not to tire you.  :D