Number of Verses in a score

• Feb 5, 2021 - 03:47

I used to use Finale in Win 7 years ago but haven't done any arranging/engraving in quite some time. I'm now using Linux so Finale is out. Someone told me about Musescore. I've been reading through the manual to see what it can and can't do and it's looking pretty impressive, especially for a free program.

However, one thing I haven't been able to find out is if there is a limit to the number of verses one can put into a score. I did see an example that showed three unnumbered verses in what appears to be an SATB arrangement but, on occasion, I've arranged as many as 14 verses (they were short) and one that had five verses, each one taking up two lines since the music repeated once before going into the chorus except for one verse with three lines where the music repeated twice before going into the chorus.


Comments

The only two real limits to this are:
1) Page size (because with more than around 64 verses per staff, some verses will be out of the standard A4 page size). Of course, you can use any page size you want, if your printer can handle it.
2) Font size (because you can reduce all, staves and lyrics, but there is an obvious human eye limit threshold).

In reply to by Shoichi

That example is NOT how I do scores. I expect each syllable of each word in a verse to be aligned with the notes they are sung on. If using a single staff, the lyrics would be inline below the staff. If using more than one staff, the lyrics would be between the top two staves or, just under each staff if counterpoint, crossed parts, etc., is involved. Keeping the lyrics inline with the music also allows me to indicate the scan instead of leaving it to guesswork.

See the attachment for a simple example.

Attachment Size
Water is Wide, The.2.pdf 89.79 KB

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