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5.11.4 The Lyrics context

Lyrics are printed by interpreting them in a Lyrics (lilypond-internals) context

\context Lyrics \lyricmode ...

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 \lyricsto expression

\lyricsto name \new Lyrics ...

This aligns the lyrics to the notes of the Voice (lilypond-internals) context called name, which has to exist. Therefore, normally the Voice is specified first, and then the lyrics are specified with \lyricsto. The command \lyricsto switches to \lyricmode mode automatically, so the \lyricmode keyword may be omitted.

For different or more complex orderings, the best way is to setup the hierarchy of staves and lyrics first, e.g.,

\context ChoirStaff <<
  \context Lyrics = sopranoLyrics { s1 }
  \context Voice = soprano { music }
  \context Lyrics = tenorLyrics { s1 }
  \context Voice = tenor { music }
>>

and then combine the appropriate melodies and lyric lines

\lyricsto "soprano" \context Lyrics = sopranoLyrics
  the lyrics

The final input would resemble

<<\context ChoirStaff << setup the music >>
  \lyricsto "soprano" etc
  \lyricsto "alto" etc
  etc
>>

The \lyricsto command detects melismata: it only puts one syllable under a tied or slurred group of notes. If you want to force an unslurred group of notes to be a melisma, insert \melisma after the first note of the group, and \melismaEnd after the last one, e.g.,

     <<
       \context Voice = "lala" {
         \time 3/4
         f4 g8
         \melisma
         f e f
         \melismaEnd
         e2
       }
       \lyricsto "lala" \new Lyrics {
         la di __ daah
       }
     >>

[image of music]

In addition, notes are considered a melisma if they are manually beamed, and automatic beaming (see Setting automatic beam behavior) is switched off.

Lyrics can also be entered without \lyricsto. In this case the duration of each syllable must be entered explicitly, for example,

play2 the4 game2.
sink2 or4 swim2.

The alignment to a melody can be specified with the associatedVoice property,

\set associatedVoice = #"lala"

The value of the property (here: "lala") should be the name of a Voice (lilypond-internals) context. Without this setting, extender lines will not be formatted properly.

Here is an example demonstrating manual lyric durations,

     << \context Voice = melody {
          \time 3/4
          c2 e4 g2.
       }
       \new Lyrics \lyricmode {
         \set associatedVoice = #"melody"
         play2 the4 game2.
       } >>

[image of music]

A complete example of a SATB score setup is in section Vocal ensembles.

Predefined commands

\melisma, \melismaEnd

See also

Program reference: LyricCombineMusic (lilypond-internals) , Lyrics (lilypond-internals) , Melisma_translator (lilypond-internals) .

input/regression/lyric-combine-new.ly.

Bugs

Melismata are not detected automatically, and extender lines must be inserted by hand.

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