Help: Why all-caps in sheet music lyrics?

Subject: Why all-caps in sheet music lyrics?
From: Tiger
Date: 24 May 01 - 07:29 PM

Some fakebooks, sheet music and other songbooks often use ALL CAPITAL LETTERS wherever the title appears in the lyrics, e.g.,

Oh, my darling, oh, my darling,
Oh, my darling CLEMENTINE
You are lost and gone forever,
Dreadful sorry CLEMENTINE

This can look truly ridiculous, especially when the title appears frequently.

Is this some strange custom, a copyright thingamabob, or what?

Subject: RE: Help: Why all-caps in sheet music lyrics?
From: Gypsy
Date: 24 May 01 - 11:05 PM

Usually so that you get the right emPHASise on the correct syLABle. Hope you read this the way i say it.

Subject: RE: Help: Why all-caps in sheet music lyrics?
From: Nathan in Texas
Date: 24 May 01 - 11:24 PM

I've noticed more often that the title is in initial caps rather than all caps. For instance, in "The Best Fake Book Ever" the phrase "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window" is capitalized, thus, every time it appears in the lyric, with one exception, presumably a typo, in the last line where it appears "How Much Is That Dog-gie In The Win-Dow?"

Subject: RE: Help: Why all-caps in sheet music lyrics?
From: Tiger
Date: 25 May 01 - 02:46 PM

No, it's definitely not for emphasis. It's the entire title that gets this treatment.

Yes, I've seen initial caps, too.

The question remains - Why?

Subject: RE: Help: Why all-caps in sheet music lyrics?
From: DougR
Date: 25 May 01 - 02:51 PM

The publishers never took English 101?

Subject: RE: Help: Why all-caps in sheet music lyrics?
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 25 May 01 - 06:00 PM

I think it's just a convention among sheet-music publishers to do it that way. I've always assumed it was just to call attention to the title, as if to say, "Yes, this is really the song you bought." It may have something to do with the phenomenon noted in an article I once read, reporting that according to the proverbial "reliable study," the people who paid the most attention to advertisements for a given product were the ones who had just bought it.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Help: Why all-caps in sheet music lyrics?
From: GUEST
Date: 25 May 01 - 07:27 PM

So you can remember the name of the song as you sing it?

Subject: RE: Help: Why all-caps in sheet music lyrics?
From: Marion
Date: 25 May 01 - 10:10 PM

Maybe it's for people who look for songs by flipping through the book rather than using an index - so the shouted words catch the eye?

Marion

Subject: RE: Help: Why all-caps in sheet music lyrics?
From: Pinetop Slim
Date: 26 May 01 - 09:41 AM

Let's e-mail a publisher and ask. Got the name of one who adheres to this practice?