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7.3.5 Flexibility in alignment

Often, different stanzas of one song are put to one melody in slightly differing ways. Such variations can still be captured with \lyricsto.

7.3.5.1 Lyrics to multiple notes of a melisma

One possibility is that the text has a melisma in one stanza, but multiple syllables in another one. One solution is to make the faster voice ignore the melisma. This is done by setting ignoreMelismata in the Lyrics context.

There has one tricky aspect. The setting for ignoreMelismata must be set one syllable before the non-melismatic syllable in the text, as shown here,

     
     <<
       \relative \new Voice = "lahlah" {
         \set Staff.autoBeaming = ##f
         c4
         \slurDotted
         f8.[( g16])
         a4
       }
       \new Lyrics \lyricsto "lahlah" {
         more slow -- ly
       }
       \new Lyrics \lyricsto "lahlah" {
         \set ignoreMelismata = ##t % applies to "fas"
         go fas -- ter
         \unset ignoreMelismata
         still
       }
     >>

[image of music]

The ignoreMelismata applies to the syllable “fas”, so it should be entered before “go”.

The reverse is also possible: making a lyric line slower than the standard. This can be achieved by insert \skips into the lyrics. For every \skip, the text will be delayed another note. For example,

     
     \relative { c c g' }
     \addlyrics {
       twin -- \skip 4
       kle
     }

[image of music]

7.3.6 Switching the melody associated with a lyrics line

More complex variations in text underlay are possible. It is possible to switch the melody for a line of lyrics during the text. This is done by setting the associatedVoice property. In the example

[image of music]

the text for the first stanza is set to a melody called “lahlah”,

\new Lyrics \lyricsto "lahlah" {
  Ju -- ras -- sic Park
}

The second stanza initially is set to the lahlah context, but for the syllable “ran”, it switches to a different melody. This is achieved with

\set associatedVoice = alternative

Here, alternative is the name of the Voice context containing the triplet.

Again, the command must be one syllable too early, before “Ty” in this case.

\new Lyrics \lyricsto "lahlah" {
  \set associatedVoice = alternative % applies to "ran"
  Ty --
  ran --
  no --
  \set associatedVoice = lahlah % applies to "rus"
  sau -- rus Rex
}

The underlay is switched back to the starting situation by assigning lahlah to associatedVoice.

7.3.7 Specifying melismata within the lyrics

It is also possible to define melismata entirely in the lyrics. This can be done by entering _ for every note that is part of the melisma.

{ \set melismaBusyProperties = #'()
  c d( e) f f( e) e e  }
\addlyrics
 { Ky -- _ _ ri __ _ _ _  e }

[image of music]

In this case, you can also have ties and slurs in the melody, if you set melismaBusyProperties, as is done in the example above.

{
 \set melismaBusyProperties = #'()
  c d( e) f f( e) e e
}
\addlyrics
 { Ky -- _ _ ri __ _ _ _  e }

[image of music]

7.3.7.1 Spacing lyrics

To increase the spacing between lyrics, set the minimum-distance property of LyricSpace.

     
     { 
       c c c c
       \override Lyrics.LyricSpace #'minimum-distance = #1.0
       c c c c
     }
     \addlyrics {
       longtext longtext longtext longtext
       longtext longtext longtext longtext
     }

[image of music]

To make this change for all lyrics in the score, set the property in the layout.

     
     \score {
       {
       c c c c
       c c c c
       }
       \addlyrics {
       longtext longtext longtext longtext
       longtext longtext longtext longtext
       }
       \layout {
         \context {
           \Lyrics
           \override LyricSpace #'minimum-distance = #1.0
         }
       }
     }

[image of music]

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