Lyrics: Proposal for better control of dash

• Sep 30, 2015 - 23:13

I have just pushed to github a Pull Request (PR) which improves the management of lyrics dash, according to the suggestions surfaced during the discussion on a previous PR of mines .

Current situation: since version 2.0, the length of the lyrics dash is variable to accommodate the space available between syllables, from a minimum of 0.25sp to a maximum of 0.8sp, to which 0.05 sp is added on either side to detach it form the text. If there is no room for even the shortest dash, it is entirely skipped, potentially leaving some blank between the syllables.

This is an example (where the Italian word "depredando" is rendered as "de-pre dan-do"):
test_sylldash_old.png

Improvement (hopefully!):

In addition to making the min and max dash length configurable as score style parameters (new defaults are 0.4sp and 0.8sp resp.), this PR adds a switch to control what to do when space is scarce.

The choice offered is between forcing a dash anyway adding more space between the syllable chords, even at the cost of a looser fitting and of altered note spacing ("de-pre-dan-do"):
test_sylldash_with.png

or reclaiming the extra space altogether and join the two syllables, by slightly shifting the second syllable to the left, keeping the best possible fitting and note spacing ("de-predan-do"):
test_sylldash_without.png

The PR is not complete yet; while work goes on, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks,

M.

Comments

• Oct 1, 2015 - 07:53

me too :-)

I think the "If there is no room for even the shortest dash, it is entirely skipped, potentially leaving some blank between the syllables." is the key.
Instead the room needed should get created, unless the minimum dash length is set to 0, in which case the blank space should get avoided.

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• Oct 1, 2015 - 17:56

"Instead the room needed should get created": this is already implemented in my proposal, even more it is its default behaviour.

"unless the minimum dash length is set to 0, ...": as I already said in the discussion on github, setting the min dash length to 0 is a limit case making little sense, as a general setting; the point is not to allow the dash to shrink gradually to 0 while the available space reduces, passing through lengths which are too short to be recognizable.

The point is to set a minimum, but still effective, length below which to trigger the correction (either restoring the space or skipping altogether the dash, according to the "Force dash" switch setting); a threshold is needed. If the current min length default (0.4sp) is not appropriate as a general case setting, it can be easily changed, while the PR is still under work.

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• Oct 1, 2015 - 08:41

To add more bits to the debate, Gould says:

"It is acceptable to omit a hyphen between a two-syllable word to save space, provided that the word cannot be elided into a single syllable in error (...). However, hyphens always clarify text underlay. It is essential to divide words of more than two syllables with hyphens".

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• Oct 1, 2015 - 18:18

That the dashes always clarify text underlay is undeniable and it is the default setting of my PR. The point is at which cost: altering the proper note spacing seems to me (and possibly not only to me, telling from scores around) too high a cost; this is why I provided an alternative.

About the number of syllables of the word: Yes, you have quoted this several times. I still believe this to be a language dependent statement, possibly an Anglo-centric statement; I am fairly confident it is hard to extend it to languages like Latin or Italian. In fact there is plenty of published sacred music not taking this 'rule' into account. Or, by chance, I was just looking at this edition of Wagner's Götterdämmerung, where one can find syllabations like "som-merlich" (p. 4) or "herrlichste" (p. 5). So, about this I am, and remain, sceptical...

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