I'm doing some 17th century arias some of which have up to 7 or 8 verses with the same music. How many can one enter under the music without making the whole illegible? Starting with how many would it be preferable to add them separately after the music?
That depends on the style and the context. My usual rule of thumb is to let three be my maximum, so that for "7 or 8 verses" I'd repeat the music three times with two or three verses under each. On the other hand, I've seen hymnbooks showing five or six verses, though I personally find those difficult to read.
Some variables to keep in mind:
- How long is the repeated music?
- Is space/paper at a premium for you?
- Do the verses have many scansion discrepancies which will require cue notes?
- Will the singers be sight-reading from the page? reading from the page with rehearsal? learning from the page but singing from memory?
My feeling is that with anything more than three verses, the singers are going to start having trouble reading it. At that point you start balancing the pros and cons. The main reason to combine more verses is if you need to save space (and page turns); the main reason not to is if you need to be helpful to the singers. Your particular situation will dictate how much weight to give to each consideration. (In the old days, saving effort for the copyist was also a major consideration, but with today's cut-and-paste that's no longer an issue.)
mdl
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