LilyPond Notation Reference: 2.1.5 Choral

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2.1.5 Choral

This section discusses notation issues that relate most directly to choral music. This includes anthems, part songs, oratorio, etc.

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References for choral

Choral music is usually notated on two, three or four staves within a ChoirStaff group. Accompaniment, if required, is placed beneath in a PianoStaff group, which is usually reduced in size for rehearsal of a cappella choral works. The notes for each vocal part are placed in a Voice context, with each staff being given either a single vocal part (i.e., one Voice) or a pair of vocal parts (i.e., two Voices).

Words are placed in Lyrics contexts, either underneath each corresponding music staff, or one above and one below the music staff if this contains the music for two parts.

Several common topics in choral music are described fully elsewhere:

An introduction to creating an SATB vocal score can be found in the Learning Manual, see Four-part SATB vocal score. There is also a built-in template which simplifies the entry of SATB vocal music, see Built-in templates.
Several templates suitable for various styles of choral music can also be found in the Learning Manual, see Vocal ensembles templates.
For information about ChoirStaff and PianoStaff see Grouping staves.
Shape note heads, as used in Sacred Harp and similar notation, are described in Shape note heads.
When two vocal parts share a staff the stems, ties, slurs, etc., of the higher part will be directed up and those of the lower part down. To do this, use \voiceOne and \voiceTwo. See Single-staff polyphony.
When a vocal part temporarily splits, you should use Temporary polyphonic passages (see Single-staff polyphony).

Predefined commands

\oneVoice, \voiceOne, \voiceTwo.

Score layouts for choral

Choral music containing four staves, with or without piano accompaniment, is usually laid out with two systems per page. Depending on the page size, achieving this may require changes to several default settings. The following settings should be considered:

The global staff size can be modified to change the overall size of the elements of the score. See Setting the staff size.
The distances between the systems, the staves and the lyrics can all be adjusted independently. See Vertical spacing.
The dimensions of the vertical layout variables can be displayed as an aid to adjusting the vertical spacing. This and other possibilities for fitting the music onto fewer pages are described in Fitting music onto fewer pages.
If the number of systems per page changes from one to two it is customary to indicate this with a system separator mark between the two systems. See Separating systems.
For details of other page formatting properties, see Page layout.

Dynamic markings by default are placed below the staff, but in choral music they are usually placed above the staff in order to avoid the lyrics. The predefined command \dynamicUp does this for the dynamic markings in a single Voice context. If there are many Voice contexts this predefined command would have to be placed in every one. Alternatively its expanded form can be used to place all dynamic markings in the entire score above their respective staves, as shown here:

\score {
  \new ChoirStaff <<
    \new Staff {
      \new Voice {
        \relative { g'4\f g g g }
      }
    }
    \new Staff {
      \new Voice {
        \relative { d'4 d d\p d }
      }
    }
  >>
  \layout {
    \context {
      \Score
      \override DynamicText.direction = #UP
      \override DynamicLineSpanner.direction = #UP
    }
  }
}

Predefined commands

\dynamicUp, \dynamicDown, \dynamicNeutral.

Selected Snippets

Using arpeggioBracket to make divisi more visible

The arpeggioBracket can be used to indicate the division of voices where there are no stems to provide the information. This is often seen in choral music.

\include "english.ly"

\score {
  \relative c'' {
    \key a \major
    \time 2/2
    <<
      \new Voice = "upper"
      <<
        { \voiceOne \arpeggioBracket
          a2( b2
          <b d>1\arpeggio)
          <cs e>\arpeggio ~
          <cs e>4
        }
        \addlyrics { \lyricmode { A -- men. } }
      >>
      \new Voice = "lower"
      { \voiceTwo
        a1 ~
        a
        a ~
        a4 \bar "|."
      }
    >>
  }
  \layout { ragged-right = ##t }
}

2.1.5 Choral

References for choral

Predefined commands

See also

Score layouts for choral

Predefined commands

See also

Selected Snippets

Using arpeggioBracket to make divisi more visible

See also

LilyPond — Notation Reference v2.24.4 (stable-branch).