Text scripts

Simple “quoted text” indications may be added to a score, as demonstrated in the following example. Such indications may be manually placed above or below the staff, using the syntax described in Direction and placement.

\relative { a'8^"pizz." g f e a4-"scherz." f }

This syntax is actually a shorthand; more complex text formatting may be added to a note by explicitly using a \markup block, as described in Formatting text.

\relative {
  a'8^\markup { \italic pizz. } g f e
  a4_\markup { \tiny scherz. \bold molto } f }

By default, text indications do not influence the note spacing. However, their widths can be taken into account: in the following example, the first text string does not affect spacing, whereas the second one does.

\relative {
  a'8^"pizz." g f e
  \textLengthOn
  a4_"scherzando" f
}

In addition to text scripts, articulations can be attached to notes. For more information, see Articulations and ornamentations.

For more information about the relative ordering of text scripts and articulations, see Placement of objects.

Predefined commands

\textLengthOn, \textLengthOff.

See also

Learning Manual: Placement of objects.

Notation Reference: Formatting text, Direction and placement, Articulations and ornamentations.

Snippets: Text.

Internals Reference: TextScript.

Known issues and warnings

Checking to make sure that text scripts and lyrics are within the margins requires additional calculations. In cases where slightly faster performance is desired, use

\override Score.PaperColumn.keep-inside-line = ##f

<< Back to Documentation Index

LilyPond Notation Reference v2.25.15 (development-branch).