The PSALM Liturgical Music Resource

Typesetting Manual (download as pdf)

Some Specific Considerations on How to Typeset Orthodox Liturgical Chant for the PSALM Liturgical Music Resource

This document is not intended as a substitute for a thorough general knowledge of Finale™ (or other music typesetting software). Nor does it attempt to address general topics or format issues having to do with common-practice Western vocal and choral notation (such as those discussed in Gardner Read's Music Notation, for example.) The outline below has been prepared specifically to deal with issues pertaining to bar-less chant notation with no meter indication of with variable meter: important considerations have been singled out as “Special topics.”

To help achieve some standardization and uniformity, particularly as it affects legibility for use in the church choir, and to ensure a measure of completeness in matters of titling and attribution, a number of templates have been designed, using Finale versions from 2000 through 2004. PSALM invites the creation of similar templates for other high-end music typesetting programs, such as Sibelius, provided they can achieve the same degree of visual quality and control. (The present document has been prepared with Finale in mind.) These templates have been prepared in a number of different voicings, from unison to mixed choir (on two staves), complete with margins, spacing, and font settings for headers, footers, and lyrics.

In preparing a piece of music for typesetting the following steps should be followed:

1. Selecting the appropriate template and to save it as a new file, using the appropriate file-naming conventions.
2. Filling in the relevant headers, using PSALM's titling and attribution guidelines. (NOTE: Pieces without proper titling and attribution are likely to be returned for revisions.)
3. Preparing the text (lyrics)
4. Preparing the music
5. Entry of music and lyrics
6. Entering additional voices
7. Potential problems and how to solve them
8. Special Topics
   • Two ways of dealing with phrases of varying lengths (e.g. in liturgical recitative)
   • Invisifying notes in recitative passages
   • Note values at the ends of phrases
   • Use of bar-lines, dotted bar-lines, partial bar-lines, and tick marks in chant notation
   • Rhythmic groupings
   • How to handle isons
9. Layout and spacing issues
10. Fine-tuning (tweaking) the final results
11. Achieving superior visual results