Lyrics are entered by separating each syllable with a space, and
surrounding them with \lyrics { ... }
, for example,
\lyrics { I want to break free }
Like notes, lyrics are also a form of music, but they must not be
printed on a staff, which is the default way to print music. To print
them as lyrics, they must be marked with \new Lyrics
:
\new Lyrics \lyrics { I want to break free }The melody for this song is as follows:
The lyrics can be set to these notes, combining both with the
\addlyrics
keyword:
\addlyrics \notes { ... } \new Lyrics ...
The final result is
\score { \notes { \addlyrics \relative c' { \partial 8 c8 \times 2/3 { f g g } \times 2/3 { g4( a2) } } \new Lyrics \lyrics { I want to break free } } \paper{ } }
This melody ends on a melisma, a single syllable ("free") sung to more than one note. This is indicated with an extender line. It is entered as two underscores, i.e.
\lyrics { I want to break free __ }
Similarly, hyphens between words can be entered as two dashes, resulting in a centered hyphen between two syllables:
Twin -- kle twin -- kle
More options, like putting multiple lines of lyrics below a melody are discussed in Vocal music.
This page is for LilyPond-2.0.0 (stable-branch).