On Jan 22, 2010, at 5:52 AM, David W. Fenton wrote:
For a syllable that is attached to a note followed by another note
(or several notes) lacking syllables, the width of the syllable
should be allocated to all the notes available before the next
syllable to the right.
It looks pretty simple to me, actually (and I'm looking at it as a
computer programmer...).
I'm trying to think seriously about this and try to formulate the
process that I regularly do by instinct and intuition, and this part
is the hardest problem. If I can leave the music spacing undisturbed
and fit the syllables comfortably by letting them overlap with
neighboring note stacks, then of course that's the answer. But there
are limits to how far I'd push a syllable that aren't simply "first
this, then that". Frequently I'll want to compromise by nudging the
syllables some and nudging the beat chart some. I know it when I see
it, but I'm not sure how I'd describe the process. Is it a simple
ratio of music perturbation to lyric perturbation? Maybe, but I
don't think so.
Here's another issue. If I've got four sixteenth notes grouped with a
syllable on each, and three of the syllables are short ones that fit
just fine but one has a long syllable that doesn't fit, then I have
to add space. But I don't want to add space just around the one note
and leave the other three as close as they were. Again, I want to
compromise and spread all four sixteenth notes out, not exactly
equally but closer to equal than to just giving space to the one with
the fat syllable. Then once the notes are set, I'll nudge the
syllables around between the four.
One thing that will surely never make it into an algorithm is that
I'm more willing to move a syllable in the direction that centers its
vowel on the note than the opposite. So for example if the lyric is
"three" I'm marginally more willing to nudge that leftward and less
willing to nudge it rightward than I would be otherwise, and if the
lyric is "eight" then vice versa. This isn't due to any prescriptive
principle, but rather a pattern of following what I consider better
readability. For similar reasons, I generally nudge any syllable
ending with a comma or period to the left so that the letters alone
are centered. (This latter *could* be built into the program's
algorithm.)
mdl
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