Art song question regarding author name

[MichelRE]

I have a score, a long art song cycle, 7 songs.

The subtitle of the work names the poet (ie: 7 songs on poetry of...)

I had initially used the pretty standard "lyrics on the left, composer on the right" layout.

Space is a BIT tight at the top of each first page.

I wanted to include an incipit for the vocal range of each song.

However, there's really no room to the left of the first measure ("voice" already take up room there.)

The only other choice I could see is replacing the "lyrics by" text with a floating incipit, just above the tempo marking of each song, flush right with the margin (the edition of the Fauré songs I have does this.)

The Question:

• Should I simply forego the range incipit?

• Or is it possible to leave out the lyricist's name (since it's already in the sub-title of the entire collection)?

if the suggestion is to go with the latter then I'll purchase the Ambitus font to achieve the desired look.

[Harpsichordmaker]

I’d say you can and should leave out the lyricist’s name since it’s the same for all pieces and it’s already written on the front page, just like you leave out the composer’s name from - say - each of the sonatas in a volume of Mozart Sonatas.

The traditional lyricist-on-the-left-composer-on-the right layout should only be used for anthologies with different composers/lyricists.

The incipit showing the vocal range shouldn’t take up so much space, after all it’s just two notes, or maybe one note if you represent the range with a (stemless) bichord, the two notes vertically aligned. It’s a nice thing but not terribly useful, so if you can’t stuff it where it belongs I think you can safely leave it out, or put the range in a very brief inteoduction or even in the index.

[hautbois baryton]

However, there's really no room to the left of the first measure ("voice" already take up room there.)

Insert the incipit anyway, and indent the system further. It's okay on the first system.

[MichelRE]

here's the end result I went with.

I used that example from the Fauré songs as my template.
The only difference being that the Fauré score has the text of each song printed on the first page of each song, but being relatively short poems they fit above the first staff of music.
The poems in my collection, with one exception, are much too long to fit like that. I'd waste ¾ of the page just with the text, so it's on its own three pages in the fontispiece material.

(sorry about the size of the image, I have no idea why it came out so large)

[David Ward]

I don't know if this is or is not a help, but these screenshots show how I presented such things in a 45 minute collection of songs I wrote during Covid lockdown, with particular reference to a compact cycle of short poems by Kipling (as a ‘true’ 15 minute cycle rather than separate songs).

Although it does not display the page number 44 the song texts are facing page 45, the first page of the Kipling cycle in the complete collection.

All I can add is that those involved in the first complete performance (in September 2022) found all the information clear, as have other singers and pianists since. What engravers might or might not think may (perhaps) be another matter.

[MichelRE]

It looks good David.
but it's too far from the house style I've adhered to for 30 years.
even my fontispiece pages have a set style/layout.

[OCTO]

here's the end result I went with.

I'm not sure if the tempo should be 68, as it is not valid at the traditional Maelzel scale. A tempo of 69 might be better. Yes, I know that with modern digital metronomes, any tempo is possible (consider Stockhausen's 83.5, for example).

[MichelRE]

I'm not sure if the tempo should be 68, as it is not valid at the traditional Maelzel scale. A tempo of 69 might be better. Yes, I know that with modern digital metronomes, any tempo is possible (consider Stockhausen's 83.5, for example).

You're absolutely correct. I hadn't noticed that. I normally always use the markings as they appear on my mechanical metro-gnome. He must have been commuting when I prepared that score.

NOTE: thank-you again, the score is now corrected.