The PSALM Liturgical Music Resource
Achieving superior visual results
Finale and other high-end music typesetting programs contain sophisticated algorithms to achieve appropriate results in such things as music and lyric spacing. However, even these programs require manual "tweaking" in order to achieve superior visual results. E.g.,
- Words in recitative passages, attached to invisified notes, should generally have a uniform amount of spacing between them, which sometimes can only be achieved by manually adjusting the "handles" in the Measure Tool, after Note-Spacing Metatool has been applied.
- Later versions of Finale automatically make words under melismatic passages appear "flush-left" under the first note of the melisma. However, sometimes it looks better to have the beginning of the word extending slightly more to the left, which entails moving it manually using the Adjust Syllables tool under Lyrics. (The Word Extension then also needs to be manually extended a bit to the right so as to be "flush right" with the last note in the melisma.)
- In applying spacing, Finale takes into account both the note values and the lyrics, which sometimes results in "distending" the space allotted to the first note of a melisma (i.e. the note with the syllable attached). This needs to be tweaked manually, so that all the notes of the melisma are evenly spaced.
- In passages comprising half notes and quarter notes (or quarter notes and eighth notes), Finale spacing generally allows more space to the longer note value, though not exactly double. Sometimes, however, the presence of lyrics distorts this proportional spacing, with the result that the spacing Finale creates between two quarter notes is greater than the space after a half note. This "automatic result" must not be allowed to stand, and needs to be adjusted manually.
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