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7.3.1 Setting simple songs

The easiest way to add lyrics to a melody is to append

\addlyrics { the lyrics }

to a melody. Here is an example,

     
     \time 3/4
     \relative { c2 e4 g2. }
     \addlyrics { play the game }

[image of music]

More stanzas can be added by adding more \addlyrics sections

     
     \time 3/4
     \relative { c2 e4 g2. }
     \addlyrics { play the game }
     \addlyrics { speel het spel }
     \addlyrics { joue le jeu }

[image of music]

Sometimes it is appropriate to have one stanza set to the music, and the rest added in verse form at the end of the piece. This can be accomplished by adding the extra verses into a \markup section outside of the main score block. Notice that there are two different ways to force linebreaks when using \markup.

     
     melody = \relative c' {
     e d c d | e e e e |
     d d e d | c1 |
     }
     
     text = \lyricmode {
     \set stanza = "1." Ma- ry had a lit- tle lamb,
     it's fleece was white as snow.
     }
     
     \book{
       \score{ <<
         \new Voice = "one" { \melody }
         \new Lyrics \lyricsto "one" \text
     	>>
         \layout { }
       }
       \markup { \column{
         \line{ Verse 2. }
         \line{ All the children laughed and played }
         \line{ To see a lamb at school. }
         }
       }
       \markup{
         \wordwrap-string #"
         Verse 3.
     
         Mary took it home again,
     
         It was against the rule."
       }
     }

[image of music]

The \addlyrics command is actually just a convienient way to write a more complicated LilyPond structure that sets up the lyrics. You should use \addlyrics unless you need to do fancy things, in which case you should investigate \lyricsto or \lyricmode.

{ MUSIC }
\addlyrics { LYRICS }

is the same as

\new Voice = "blah" { music }
\new Lyrics \lyricsto "blah" { LYRICS }

Bugs

\addlyrics cannot handle polyphony.

This page is for LilyPond-2.8.0 (stable-branch).

Report errors to http://post.gmane.org/post.php?group=gmane.comp.gnu.lilypond.bugs.

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