RE: "Extra" verses

[Ruth Ivimey-Cook]

Christ Van Willegen wrote:
> Mats wrote:
> > However, from my experience as a choir singer, would definitely 
> > recommend you to typeset all the verses directly in the score.
> > Unless it's a trivial tune that you can learn i 2 minutes, you have
> > to jump back and forth between the music and the lyrics if it's
> > typeset below the score.
> 
> That's true, and I suggest you follow this design.
> However, in most church music, normally only one verse is 
> typeset in the score, and the other verses are typeset below 
> the first verse.

Indeed.
 
> If the page needs to be turned, usually the first verse on 
> the new set of pages will be typeset with a score, again.

I haven't seen this, but it seems sensible.
 
> I usually solve this (jumping between music and words) by 
> having my thumb 'near' the current line, and quickly glancing 
> to the music while singing. Ofcourse, since church music is 
> usually 'easy' enough to learn in 2 minutes (or less), this 
> is ... workable. But definately not optimal!

Having throught some more about it, I don't think there is an optimal solution.
Mats' solution (all verses with score) is fine for 1 or 2 verses, adequate for
3 and hopeless for 5 and more IMO; the reason is that you get so many lines of
text under each line of score that it becomes easy to lose track of which line
you're on, so you end up singing the second half of verse 3 when you should be
singing the second half of verse 4!

The best solution (for songs that fit on a page) in my mind is to put 2 verses
with the score and the rest underneath. This gives the singer 2 verses of
guidance before having to start skipping. OTOH, you lose the guidance of where
to slur words, etc, which although it is often obvious is not always so.

Ho hum. Life isn't perfect :-)

Ruth