Vocal (lyric-bearing) beaming: one-beam-per-syllable vs. modern instrumental-style beaming — currently unauditable AND unauthorable, a real gap for Gradus's chorale curriculum

Traditional vocal engraving beams notes only within a single syllable — a melisma of several notes on one syllable is beamed together, but two notes each carrying their own new syllable are given separate flags even if they would instrumentally beam together — with a hyphen/extender line showing the syllable spans multiple notes. Modern engraving practice increasingly uses full instrumental-style beaming by meter regardless of syllable count, relying on hyphens/extender lines under the lyric alone to show melisma, since it is simpler and more consistent with the rest of the score's beaming.

Ross, Art of Music Engraving and Read, Music Notation both describe one-beam-per-syllable as the historical choral-engraving norm. Gould, Behind Bars, ch. on vocal/choral notation favors the modern instrumental-style approach for consistency and legibility in contemporary engraving.

AUTHORITY DISAGREEMENT — RECOMMENDATION FOR GRADUS: adopt Gould's modern instrumental-style beaming uniformly. Reasoning: Gradus's chorale and species-counterpoint lessons teach harmony/voice-leading, not choral performance engraving.

Our own judgement, not a sourced convention — shown separately so the two are never confused.

This rule can be decided from pitches, durations and voices — no layout required. A validator can check it before anything is drawn.