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The Lyrics context

Lyrics are printed by interpreting them in Lyrics context:

      \context Lyrics \lyrics ...
     

This will place the lyrics according to the durations that were entered. The lyrics can also be aligned under a given melody automatically. In this case, it is no longer necessary to enter the correct duration for each syllable. This is achieved by combining the melody and the lyrics with the \addlyrics expression:

     \addlyrics
       \notes ...
       \context Lyrics ...
     

Normally, this will put the lyrics below the staff. For different or more complex orderings, the best way is to setup the hierarchy of staves and lyrics first, e.g.

     \context ChoirStaff \notes <<
       \context Lyrics = sopr { s1 }
       \context Staff = soprStaff { s1 }
       \context Lyrics = tenor { s1 }
       \context Staff = tenorStaff { s1 }
     >>
     
and then combine the appropriate melodies and lyric lines:
       \addlyrics
         \context Staff = soprStaff  the music
         \context Lyrics = sopr the lyrics
     

putting both together, you would get

     \context ChoirStaff \notes <<
       \context Lyrics = ...
       \context Staff =  ...
       \addlyrics ...
     >>
     

A complete example of a SATB score setup is in the file input/template/satb.ly.

See also

LyricCombineMusic, Lyrics, and input/template/satb.ly.

Bugs

\addlyrics is not automatic enough: melismata are not detected automatically, and melismata are not stopped when they hit a rest. A melisma on the last note in a melody is not printed.


This page is for LilyPond-2.0.1 (stable-branch).

Report errors to <bug-lilypond@gnu.org>.