Re: Three small variations on lyrics?

[Arjan Bos]

(This time to the list (sorry Mats)):

On 4 nov 2004, at 13:43, Mats Bengtsson wrote:

> As you can see if you look at other emails in the same thread as
> the mail cited below, you'll notics that I also had a number of
> comments on that particular example.
>
> Unfortunately, I don't know of a fast track. I'm afraid you need
> to fit together a number of concepts that I realize are hard to
> grasp directly the first time you see them. So, it's time to
> read more in the manual, for example parts of the chapter on
> "Changing Defaults".

I'm in the process of understanding that chapter, thanks!

> If you send an example of what you have tried so far and what
> didn't work, there may be some helpful soul out here who can
> provide hints in the right direction.

What I have now is very simple, but it works. (Mmh, it's simple and it 
works, so it must be good ;-) )

I just add three lyrics to the voice. First lyric contains all lyrics, 
including the first stanza. Second lyrics uses \skip to skip the notes 
up to the stanza, then it prints the second stanza and likewise for the 
third. I used this method in a larger piece and the skipped lyrics 
aren't printed, meaning that there is no space printed for them.

So for the record, this is what I did:

\version "2.4.1"

%% prints three stanzas in the middle of the lyrics. The trick is
%% appearantly to print three lyrics.

%% Start of to define the elements of the piece

%% First define the global elements
global      = { \key c \major \time 4/4 }

%% Define the music used in this piece
music       = \notemode { c4 d e c c d8~ d e4 c e f g g }

%% Lyrics sung upto the first stanza.
startText   = \lyricmode { Six small words to start with }

%% amount of notes to skip up to the first stanza. Can this be done
%% any simpler? Can we derive it from the startText?
startSpace  = \lyricmode {
    \skip 1 \skip 1 \skip 1 \skip 1
    \skip 1 \skip 1
}

%% The three stanzas
stanzaOne   = \lyricmode { \set stanza = "1." first stanza }
stanzaTwo   = \lyricmode { \set stanza = "2." second stanza }
stanzaThree = \lyricmode { \set stanza = "3." third stanza }

%% Lyrics sung after the stanzas
finishText  = \lyricmode { Some fi -- nal words }

%% let's put it all together.
\score {
    <<
        %% First part of the partiture (sp?) is a staff
        \context Staff = everybody
        %% This staff has one voice and that voice holds the music
        \context Voice = everyone {
            \voiceOne << \global \relative c' \music >>
        }
        %% first lyric, includes the first stanza
        \addlyrics {
            \startText \stanzaOne \finishText
        }
        %% second lyric, it is whitespace up to the second
        %% stanza. Don't bother to insert whitespace after the stanza.
        \addlyrics {
            \startSpace \stanzaTwo
        }
        %% third lyric, also only whitespace up to the stanza.
        \addlyrics {
            \startSpace \stanzaThree
        }
        %% To show that the lyrics all belong to the first staff, we
        %% add a second staff with music.
        \context Staff = melody { \clef bass \music }
    >>
}

Hope this will help someone in the (near) future

Regards,
Arjan Bos