2.1.1 Common notation for vocal music
This section discusses issues related to vocal music in general, and to some particular styles of vocal music.
References for vocal music and lyrics | ||
Opera | ||
Song books | ||
Spoken music | ||
Chants | ||
Ancient vocal music |
References for vocal music and lyrics
Various issues may arise when engraving vocal music. Some of these are discussed in this section, while others are explained elsewhere:
- Most styles of vocal music use written text as lyrics. An introduction to this notation is to be found in Setting simple songs.
-
Vocal music is likely to require the use of
markup
mode, either for lyrics of for other text elements (character’s names, etc.). This syntax is described in Text markup introduction. - Lead sheets may be printed by combining vocal parts and ‘chord mode’; this syntax is explained in Chord notation.
- ‘Ambitus’ may be added at the beginning of vocal staves, as explained in Ambitus.
- Vocal parts may be printed using traditional clefs, as shown in Clef.
- Ancient vocal music is supported, as explained in Ancient notation.
Opera
TBC
Song books
TBC
Selected Snippets
Simple lead sheet
When put together, chord names, a melody, and lyrics form a lead sheet:
<< \chords { c2 g:sus4 f e } \relative c'' { a4 e c8 e r4 b2 c4( d) } \addlyrics { One day this shall be free __ } >>
See also
Notation Reference: Chord notation.
Spoken music
Such effects as ‘parlato’ or ‘Sprechgesang’ require perfomers to speak without pitch but still with rhythm; these are notated by cross note heads, as demonstrated in Special note heads.
Chants
TBC
Ancient vocal music
TBC
See also
Notation Reference: Ancient notation.