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Topic: layering - but not; chords - but not. (Read 3079 times) previous topic - next topic

layering - but not; chords - but not.

I'm entering a 4-staff vocal score for a piece of music, and am running across an awkward measure. I don't know whether this will be a layering question or a chord question.

At certain points, each of the voice parts divides. The divisi are usually chordal, but occasionally they go just a little polyphonic.

At one point, the soprano line contains a chord consisting of a dotted half note on E joined to a non-dotted half note on C sharp. The next syllable is to be sung on a quarter note D sharp and an A sharp half note.

If I join that D-sharp quarter note to the A-sharp half note by entering it with Cntl-Enter, the measure ends up a quarter note too short. If I just enter it (without Cntl-Enter) the lyrics don't line up, and the measure is now a quarter note too long.

I've just figured out how to layer a second line to the soprano staff, but now all the rests I entered to get to the measure I wanted are visible when I layer the 2 staves.

Do I have another alternative than to just copy the 1st staff's notes into the second staff and alter only the measure(s) where the part divides? I guess that would work, but it would increase the size of the resulting file - a waste of disk space, and a hardship to downloaders with dialup lines.

Also, I am assuming that layering is the path to go down. Am I wrong? Can this be straightened out by working with chords?

Sorry for the length, and I hope this was clear enough to understand.

Re: layering - but not; chords - but not.

Reply #1 –
> I'm entering a 4-staff vocal score

I always create a separate staff for each vocal part and then layer as needed.

Re: layering - but not; chords - but not.

Reply #2 –
Thanks. That's what I'm doing. I guess layering is the way to go then.

I wonder whether there's a way to avoid the 2nd staff's containing the whole part.

If I just create the 2nd staff and fill it with rests to make it align to the one measure that it's needed for, all the rests appear with the notes from the original staff.

But copying the whole part into the 2nd staff and changing just one measure seems wasteful of disk space and inconsiderate to downloaders. It must make the file larger, right?

Re: layering - but not; chords - but not.

Reply #3 –
When I do SATB, I usually use both staff layering and ordinary chords (on a single staff). The ordinary chords do some things better; the layering does other things better. Together, the result is best.

Re: layering - but not; chords - but not.

Reply #4 –
Note that you can select any section of a staff (such as a long bit with nothing but rests, right click to get the context menu, select properties and set visibility to "never".  Then the rests will not show in printing or in NWP (though they are gray ghosts in NWC).

Re: layering - but not; chords - but not.

Reply #5 –
Thank you, Cyril, that's what I was looking for!

Re: layering - but not; chords - but not.

Reply #6 –
Remember too, that it is not necessary to layer staves together to print 4-part choral music.  As a professional singer who has sung in many different choruses, professional and non-professional, I can tell you unequivocally that singing from music printed in 4 separate staves is far easier than singing from music printed with 2 parts to a staff.  The only reason to print 2 parts to a staff is to save ink and paper.  For many pieces this is adequate, but for others it makes it more difficult to sing.  It sounds as though your piece may be easier to read if you left the parts un-layered.  This would also solve your alignment problem.