Re: Multiple rhythms in same score

[David Wright]

On Fri 24 Jun 2016 at 13:17:02 (+1000), Don Gingrich wrote:
> What I think that I want to do may simply be 
> impossible -- I'll say that at the start.
> 
> When I see full scores for a number of songs published,
> it is clear that the reason that various verses are printed
> separately is that one or more bars have significantly
> different rhythm from the first verse.
> 
> But, when attempting to publish a score with the goals of:
> 1) fit it all on one or at most two A4 sheets
> 2) put the lyrics under the score (melody line) 
> 3) put guitar chords above the score
> 
> The case of a quarter note split into two eighth notes
> with a dotted tie and \set \ignoreMelismata = ##t
> \unset \ignoreMelismata in the lyrics works for most 
> cases, but I'm dealing with variations that don't easily
> fit this solution.
> 
> I'm left with a dilemma -- on the score I'm engraving at
> present, Tom Paxton's "Marvellous Toy" it is becoming 
> clear that I've got at least one bar where the first verse
> should be
> b4 b b8 a g4
> 
> and one of the other verses looks like
> 
> b4 b b g
> 
> And I'm fairly certain that I need to replace a:
> 
> 4. 8 4 with a triplet in another instance
> 
> Is there a possible way to show variant notes in a bar
> with lyrics optionally binding to one or the other?
> 
> I'm guessing that the answer is  "no" since publishers like 
> to reduce the page count, where possible. And I've never 
> seen this done.
> 
> So, I won't be too frustrated if the answer is, "It can't
> be done"

It depends on what you find acceptable. Here are two possibilities.
I wrote the first as an exercise in connection with a thread about
repeats a while back. The second is really just cobbled together.
I haven't got time to fiddle about with the exact placement of the
words relative to ossias.

Cheers,
David.

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