Thanks, Mark, for this and your other reply on the hyphens. It's interesting to have your opinion as a singer. It's also interesting to hear that this is the standard style in opera.
I probably should clarify: It's not so much a matter of opera vs pop, as old vs new. The point is that in opera we're accustomed to looking at music that was engraved 100+ years ago. Even the new editions usually are just reprints of old plates.
Among recent editions which are re-engraved, most switch to the flush-left way (eg, Schirmer) though a few stick with the tradition (eg, International). Note that by "recent" here, I'm still talking about 10-25 years ago.
Singers who sing exclusively pop might find the older style odd. Anyone who sings anything classical -- eg, anyone in a typical community chorus -- will be probably comfortable with either style. Strict traditionalists would presumably object to the flush left for the same reason that they object to eighths on separate syllables beamed together, but I think they're a small minority now.
But going back to the original question that started all this, in my own work I treat centered as my default for a syllable that starts a tie or melisma, but I will always nudge a long syllable a little bit to the right, just not all the way to flush left.
mdl
_______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
