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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

Re: Synalephe

Reply #8 –
Good morning,
My mentor Flurmy suggested I show in a complete or partial NWC file what I mean by "synalepha." I'm taking advantage of the graphic symbol Richard suggested to submit a song in which this symbol is used recurringly. With this submission, I thank everyone, Richard first and foremost, and I close the discussion.
Happy Sunday.

Lorenzo
PS: For translation, please contact Flurmy. It's "stuff" from his homeland! :D

Re: Synalephe

Reply #9 –
Many thanks, Lorenzo and Richard and all, for this thread. I learned new things!

H.M.

Re: Synalephe

Reply #10 –
Sorry, two almost identical messages on the same topic!  ::)  :-[
I apologize to the generous Flurmy and thank HMM.
Lorenzo

Re: Synalephe

Reply #11 –
Update:

I wanted to report some good news and bad news. The good news is that I've got a working object, which I am calling Synamatic.ms, which works like Melismatic.nw in that you put one copy at the front of your score, and it automatically adds the synalepha where they are needed.

But I said there was also bad news: I didn't check lawrroc's examples closely enough, and the way I coded it, it will currently only draw one synalepha per syllable. One of the example scores has several cases where there are two separate marks in the same lyric syllable.  So, with this limitation, I don't think it makes sense to release the code at this time.

I'm trying to think of a way to handle multiple markings per lyric syllable without having to rewrite the entire logic from scratch. But just so you can see what they look like, I'm including a sample.

I'll keep everyone posted as to my progress.

  - Mike

PS - in the screen shot, the object looks a bit grainy, but that's only in the editing window. In a print preview, it looks much smoother.

Re: Synalephe

Reply #12 –
Well, that wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I am posting the new object now as a separate topic. Attached is one of @lawrroc's example scores, with the changes needed for the object, which is basically putting a _ character in each syllable where you want the mark to appear.

Re: Synalephe

Reply #13 –
Well, I'm very pleased even just to have stimulated your knowledge (thanks, Mike). Let me start by saying that I'm not a linguist. The situation you described isn't actually very common and occurs when, for metrical reasons, a vowel gets stuck between two syllables or between a syllable and a final vowel, as in the case cited. This causes three distinct phonemes to fall under the same note. In poetry, this gives a particular rhythm to the line. In a sung text, however, the sign we're discussing lends breadth and clarity to the music in that particular passage. Thanks again for your interest.
Lorenzo
 

Re: Synalephe

Reply #14 –
Good one Mike.  Well done  Cheers

R.
Rich.