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Lyrics are printed by interpreting them in the context caleld Lyrics.
\new Lyrics \lyricmode ...
This will place the lyrics according to the durations that were
entered. The lyrics can also be aligned under a given melody
automatically. In this case, it is no longer necessary to enter the
correct duration for each syllable. This is achieved by combining the
melody and the lyrics with the \lyricsto
expression
\new Lyrics \lyricsto name ...
This aligns the lyrics to the
notes of the
Voice context called name, which has
to exist. Therefore, normally the Voice
is specified first, and
then the lyrics are specified with \lyricsto
. The command
\lyricsto
switches to \lyricmode
mode automatically, so the
\lyricmode
keyword may be omitted.
The following example uses different commands for entering lyrics.
<< \new Voice = "one" \relative c'' { \autoBeamOff \time 2/4 c4 b8. a16 g4. f8 e4 d c2 } \new Lyrics \lyricmode { Joy4 to8. the16 world!4. the8 Lord4 is come.2 } \new Lyrics \lyricmode { Joy to the earth! the Sav -- our reigns. } \new Lyrics \lyricsto "one" { No more let sins and sor -- rows grow. } >>
The second stanza is not properly aligned because the durations
were not specified. A solution for that would be to use \lyricsto
.
To define indentifiers containing lyrics, the function lyricmode
must be used.
verseOne = \lyricmode { Joy to the world the Lord is come } \score { << \new Voice = "one" \relative c'' { \autoBeamOff \time 2/4 c4 b8. a16 g4. f8 e4 d c2 } \addlyrics { \verseOne } >> }
The \addlyrics
command is actually just a convenient way
to write a more complicated LilyPond structure that sets up the
lyrics.
{ MUSIC } \addlyrics { LYRICS }
is the same as
\new Voice = "blah" { music } \new Lyrics \lyricsto "blah" { LYRICS }
For different or more complex orderings, the best way is to setup the hierarchy of staves and lyrics first, e.g.,
\new ChoirStaff << \new Voice = "soprano" { music } \new Lyrics = "sopranoLyrics" { s1 } \new Lyrics = "tenorLyrics" { s1 } \new Voice = "tenor" { music } >>
and then combine the appropriate melodies and lyric lines
\context Lyrics = sopranoLyrics \lyricsto "soprano" the lyrics
The final input would resemble
<<\new ChoirStaff << setup the music >> \lyricsto "soprano" etc \lyricsto "alto" etc etc >>
Program reference: LyricCombineMusic, Lyrics.
This page is for LilyPond-2.8.8 (stable-branch).