Re: Reducing staff numbers in LilyPond

[David Kastrup]

Ken Williams <address@hidden> writes:

> On Mon, Oct 16, 2017 at 12:11 PM, David Wright <address@hidden>
> wrote:
>
>> It strikes me that notating this unusual effect on one staff
>> increases ambiguity and the potential for mistakes, compared with
>> just duplicating the notes on the normal two staves. When choral
>> basses look at an E on the bottom line of a treble staff, they
>> don't prepare their voices for singing at the top of their range.
>>
>> It could end up as a neat way of making yourself unpopular with
>> Sopranos and Basses alike. Hey, why not go the whole hog and use
>> a C clef!
>>
>
> I honestly did not expect this kind of response, and I'm getting it
> from multiple people.  I asked a technical question and got a whole
> bunch of "answers" saying I'm stupid to try to achieve that effect.

They are saying that your notation will not work to convey your idea.
Unsurprisingly, a lot of users on this list are actual musicians.

I've been singing quite a bit of alto myself, and the difference in
timbre from a male singing in the _identical_ octave is actually
irritating to the female altos who then have problems hitting the _same_
octave.

Without that octave of difference, hoping for a unison-sounding(!)
timbre from sopranos and basses at the same pitch is optimistic.  But
then of course you are free to do your own experiments.

> Except for Kieren hinting that it will probably be difficult, there
> has been *zero* actual discussion about the technical aspects of it.
>
> If LilyPond or its community isn't friendly to people who want to
> experiment with notation, I guess I'm finding that out pretty quickly.

The comments weren't about experimenting with notation but with singers.
Yes, they did not answer your question but tried providing related
information, information you did not ask for.  Emotionally, particularly
in a purely written medium, telling "this is a bad idea" apart from "you
are stupid" may not be easy.  It makes working with a medium that
actually exhibits a bout of overeagerness rather than malice easier,
however.

-- 
David Kastrup