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3.11.3 More stanzas

The lyrics should be aligned with the note heads of the melody. To achieve this, each line of lyrics should be marked to correspond with the melodic line. This is done automatically when \lyricsto, but it can also be done manually.

To this end, give the Voice context an identity

     \context Voice = duet {
          \time 3/4
          g2 e4 a2 f4 g2.  }

Then set the Lyrics contexts to names starting with that identity followed by a dash. In the preceding example, the Voice identity is duet, so the identities of the Lyricss are marked duet-1 and duet-2

       \context Lyrics = "duet-1" {
         Hi, my name is Bert. }
       \context Lyrics = "duet-2" {
         Ooooo, ch\'e -- ri, je t'aime. }

The complete example is shown here

     \score {
       <<
         \notes \relative c'' \context Voice = duet {
           \time 3/4
            g2 e4 a2 f4 g2. }
         \lyrics <<
           \lyricsto "duet" \new Lyrics {
             \set vocalName = "Bert"
             Hi, my name is Bert. }
           \lyricsto "duet" \new Lyrics {
             \set vocalName = "Ernie"
             Ooooo, ch\'e -- ri, je t'aime. }
         >>
       >>
     }

[image of music]

Stanza numbers can be added by setting stanza, e.g.

     <<
       \context Voice = duet {
         \time 3/4 g2 e4 a2 f4 g2. }
        \lyrics \lyricsto "duet" \new Lyrics {
          \set stanza = "1. "
          Hi, my name is Bert. }
     >>

[image of music]

This example also demonstrates how names of the singers can be added using vocalName analogous to instrument annotations for staves. A short version may be entered as vocNam.

To make empty spaces in lyrics, use \skip.

See also

Program reference: Layout objects LyricText and VocalName. Music expressions LyricEvent.

Bugs

Input for lyrics introduces a syntactical ambiguity

     foo = bar

is interpreted as assigning a string identifier \foo such that it contains "bar". However, it could also be interpreted as making or a music identifier \foo containing the syllable `bar'. The force the latter interpretation, use

     foo = \lyrics bar4

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