Re: partcombine for choir and piano?

[Karlin High]

On 8/2/2018 4:37 PM, Simon Albrecht wrote:
> On 02.08.2018 23:15, Noeck wrote:
> > 1. Does \partcombine make sense for combining *soprano and alto* into
> > one staff or should I use voices? I see pros (+) and cons (-):
> >
> >   - The fact that I would prefer the 'apart' style everywhere makes me
> >     think that it's perhaps not what \partcombine is intended for.
>
> It certainly isn’t; surely nobody ever considered vocal writing while 
> working on the part combiner. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that it 
> doesn’t work; since the part combiner always uses the same internal 
> voice names, I can even imagine (without ever having tried it) that in a 
> clever setup one could find a convenient way to flexibly attach lyrics, 
> coordinated with the modes of the part combiner.

Almost all of my LilyPond projects are SATB or TTBB hymns or choral 
music. I use \partcombine unless I have a more-complex work that needs 
each part on its own staff. This is because my audiences are not used to 
the "apart" style.

Since you prefer the "apart" style, you could just use separate 
simultaneous voices. My experience with \partcombine makes me doubt that 
it would be a big improvement for handling dynamics, but instead would 
likely have its own set of problems. For example, voices get de-combined 
at dynamics, might need a separate simultaneous dynamics context.

For lyrics on a multi-voice staff, associating them with a simultaneous 
NullVoice is often the way to go.
--
Karlin High
Missouri, USA