Vertically centered common lyrics

In a vocal piece where there are several (two, four or more) lines of lyrics and common lyrics for all voices at some point, the common lyrics may be made to appear vertically centered, as shown in the following example:

dropLyrics = {
  \override LyricText.extra-offset = #'(0 . -4.5)
  \override LyricHyphen.extra-offset = #'(0 . -4.5)
  \override LyricExtender.extra-offset = #'(0 . -4.5)
  \override StanzaNumber.extra-offset = #'(0 . -4.5)
}

raiseLyrics = {
  \revert LyricText.extra-offset
  \revert LyricHyphen.extra-offset
  \revert LyricExtender.extra-offset
  \revert StanzaNumber.extra-offset
}

skipFour = \repeat unfold 4 { \skip 8 }

lyricsA = \lyricmode {
  The first verse has
  \dropLyrics
  \set stanza = #"   All:"
  the com -- mon __ words
  \raiseLyrics
  used in all four.
}

lyricsB = \lyricmode { In stan -- za two,   \skipFour al -- so ap -- pear. }

lyricsC = \lyricmode { By the third verse,  \skipFour are get -- ting dull. }

lyricsD = \lyricmode { Last stan -- za, and \skipFour get used once more. }

melody = \relative c' {
  c4 d e f |
  g f e8( e f) d |
  c4 e d c |
}

\score {
  <<
    \new Voice = m \melody
    \new Lyrics \lyricsto m \lyricsA
    \new Lyrics \lyricsto m \lyricsB
    \new Lyrics \lyricsto m \lyricsC
    \new Lyrics \lyricsto m \lyricsD
  >>
}

[image of music]


LilyPond snippets v2.25.20 (development-branch).