GDP - Learning Manuall Songs section

[Trevor Daniels]

As one of the GDP helpers I'm having a first look at the
Songs section which is to go into the new Learning Manual.
It will be based on the Tutorial Songs section (section 2.4)
in the present User Manual.  This is rather short at
present, and I would like to extend it.  The question is, by
how much.  I'd welcome your views on the suggestions below.
In particular, is this too long?  Does this cover too
many/too few topics?  How many examples should be included?
Are these good examples?  Is the division into subsections
optimal?  Are the subsection headings right?

IMO some of the explanations of lyrics in the vocal section
of the present manual (section 7.3) are written in a
tutorial style, and the easier parts of these could be moved
with advantage into the Learning Manual.  I am thinking in
particular of sections 7.3.1 Setting simple songs and the
easier parts of some other sections.

Most of the _concepts_ associated with lyrics need to be
introduced in the Learning Manual, as they are pretty well
all needed whenever lyrics need to be set.  But only the
minimum number of technicalities should be covered; all
alternative methods and all tweaks should remain in the new
Notation Reference and simply referenced.

Here's an outline of my thoughts on a possible new
structure.  It actually covers little more than the present
Tutorial section, but includes more examples and splits the
material up into subsections.  The interpersing text could
be quite brief.

Lyrics (rather than Songs?)

* Setting simple songs
 - introduce \addlyrics
 - take part of text from section 7.3.1
 - example: "Girls and boys come out to play" and/or
 - example: "Thus saith the Lord" (Handel's Messiah) (hardly
a song!)
* Aligning lyrics to a melody
  - introduce \lyricmode, melismata, extenders, hyphens, use
of slurs
  - example: "Away in a manger" First 4 bars  and/or
  - example: first 3 bars of Purcell's "Dido's Lament"
* Setting duets
  - two voices, introduce \lyricsto
  - example of divisi on single staff: taken from Handel's
"O Lovely Peace" (Let fleecy flocks ..)
* Multiple syllables on a single note
  - use of quotes, tilde and underscore
  - example of Italian: Rossini's "Largo al factotem" and/or
  - example of recit: Gilbert & Sullivan's "Hold monsters"
(Pirates or Penzance) and/or
  - example of a chant: versicle "O Lord, show thy mercy
upon us"
* Lyrics to multiple staves
  - how to write lyrics for SATB
  - example: three bars of "Behold the Lamb of God"
(Handel's Messiah)
* Languages other than English
  - use of unicode
  - example: ????? .. (Onégin's Aria)
* Lyrics separate from the music
  - example: a hymn with verses below the music
* A lead sheet
  - introduce \chordmode and \chords
  - examples from popular music (but what about copyright?
use nursery rhymes?)

Trevor