Barbara Stearns

Thanks for all of the replies. I'm sorry that my explanation wasn't complete enough. My question is about incomplete measures that are broken at the end of a stave of music. This happens fairly often in the narrow pages of a hymnal. The pick-up notes I mentioned are either at the beginning of the song or at a section break, where a verse ends and a refrain begins. Usually, these pick-up notes are full beats, but occasionally I've found half beats in the pick-up notes. Yes, the number of beats in the two parts (end of one stave and beginning of the next, or the beginning and end of the song, if the pick-up notes are at the beginning) adds up to a full measure. The documentation that I found in the book Behind Bars might be for orchestral music so there wouldn't be the issue of verses and refrain. I have attached one example: the first, second and last staves end with an incomplete measure and they are broken at half a beat. The rest of the measure is completed in the next stave system, the last stave being completed with pick-up notes at the beginning. According to the rule in Behind Bars, the staves should be open at the end, without barlines, but I guess the section breaks (end of verses and final bar) don't count as measure bars. So, I've been wondering what rules apply to vocal music?

We are working on hymns with 4 part harmony. The question has arisen about how to deal with bar lines where a measure is broken. Is there a rule? In a book called Behind Bars by Elaine Gould we find that bar lines should not be used where a measure is broken at the end of a stave. Also a measure should not be broken except at a full beat. We have a number of places where there are pick-up notes and even beats are broken. These are places dictated by the lyrics, even at the beginning of a refrain. It seems impossible to apply these rules to music with lyrics. Are there rules regarding this for choral music?