Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2022 March 21

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March 21

How do right-to-left languages print their sheet music?

Some languages are written in Right-to-left script. I am curious … in those countries and languages, what does their sheet music look like? Is it simply the “normal” / standard convention ... that looks like the examples on this page --> sheet music ... ? Or is their sheet music also written in "reverse", Right-to-left script? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 00:26, 21 March 2022 (UTC)

I would doubt that, I think sheet music would be standardized as an internationalized left-to-right variant everywhere. (I think it would rather be the lyrics that would be reversed in these cases, though that's just a hunch.) 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 01:27, 21 March 2022 (UTC)

Yes, but music (notes, etc.) and lyrics go hand-in-hand ... no? As in this example (picture of Adeste Fidelis sheet music) below, to the right ... Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 02:23, 21 March 2022 (UTC)

Hymn-style arrangement of "Adeste Fideles" in standard two-staff format (bass staff and treble staff) for mixed voices

I found a couple of music forum discussions; Score mirroring in right-to-left languages and Hebrew language, the latter has a post (way down a long conversation about "mirroring" with music software):

I have recently seen a book which shows music written from right to left (The notes themselves, as in some examples above, not just the lyrics). The book is from the period after the state of Israel was founded, about 60 years ago. Some people thought that this might be a good practice. But this idea was abandoned and apart from this book I have never seen any music written like this (including Hebrew and Arabic music). There are many musicians in Israel, writing and performing music in many styles (western and oriental), and all the music is written from left to right.

Presumably with the Hebrew text being shown seperately from the musical notation. Alansplodge (talk) 09:59, 21 March 2022 (UTC)

On this music sheet of Hava Nagilah, the separate syllables of the lyrics in the Hebrew script, each by themselves written right-to-left, are given in left-to-right order with the corresponding notes. It must be a bit to a Hebrew singer as it would be to an American if the convention had been to write musical scores right-to-left, and the lyrics to "Adeste Fideles" looked like "tes  -  phan  -  trium   ti  -  Læ   les  -  de  -  fi   te  -  des  -  A".  --Lambiam 11:20, 21 March 2022 (UTC)

Pretty much how I imagined it, it seems my hunch was right this time. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 12:42, 21 March 2022 (UTC)

On a related note, lyrical notation on sheet music generally seems to be quite simple, compared to all tricks a skilled singer could do with his/ her voice. It's mostly just "Sing these lyrics in connection to the music notated", I'm not sure if there'd be more complex notations out there, specialized for singers. (Or are the notes then meant as the way to sing? I just thought the singing and the music could be different parts playing off each other.) 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 13:10, 21 March 2022 (UTC)

Thanks, all! Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 16:16, 24 March 2022 (UTC)

Resolved