Re: Lyrics - align first wowel of a syllable under the notehead -- SUCCESS

[Carl D. Sorensen]

Success!  It's not perfect, because it doesn't recognize that we're using a
proportional font, but it looks pretty good to me.

It uses vowels (characters that are always vowels) and secondary vowels
(characters that are vowels only if there isn't a regular vowel, like y in
english), both of which are easily user=defined.

I hope this helps.  It seems to me to work pretty well.

Carl


\version "2.12"

\paper { ragged-right = ##f }

#(define vowel-set (list->char-set (string->list "AEIOUaeiou")))
#(define secondary-vowel-set (list->char-set (string->list "Yy")))

#(define (vowel-alignment syllable)
    "Calculate the alignment of a syllable in order to place the
    first vowel at the notehead."
    (let* ((syllable-length (string-length syllable))
           (vowel-count (string-count syllable vowel-set))
           (vowel-position (string-index syllable vowel-set))
           (secondary-vowel-count (string-count syllable
secondary-vowel-set))
           (secondary-vowel-position
            (string-index syllable secondary-vowel-set))
           (align-character
            (if (> vowel-count 0)
                vowel-position
                (if (> secondary-vowel-count 0)
                    secondary-vowel-position
                    (/ syllable-length 2)))))
     (- 
      (/ 
       (* 2 (+ align-character 0.5))     ; 2 is for RIGHT-LEFT
                                        ; 0.5 is to center on vowel
       syllable-length)
      1)))


#(define (vowel-center music)
  "For every EventChord in elements of @var{music}, if elements in
EventChord has a LyricEvent, add an item just before the EventChord
that will provide the appropriate self-alignment-X to allow vowel-centered
lyrics."
  (define (insert-X-align element-list)
     (if (null? element-list)
         '()
         (let* ((element (car element-list))
                (element-name (ly:music-property element 'name))
                (syllable (if (eq? element-name 'EventChord)
                           (let ((sub-element
                                  (car
                                    (ly:music-property element 'elements))))
                            (if (eq? (ly:music-property
                                      sub-element
                                      'name
                                      'LyricEvent))
                                (ly:music-property sub-element 'text)
                                #f))
                            #f)))
             (if syllable
              (cons
                (make-music
                 'ContextSpeccedMusic
                 'context-type 'Bottom
                 'element
                 (make-music
                  'OverrideProperty
                  'pop-first #t
                  'grob-property-path '(self-alignment-X)
                  'grob-value (vowel-alignment syllable)
                  'once #t
                  'symbol 'LyricText))
              ;"INSERTED HERE"
              (cons
               element
               (insert-X-align (cdr element-list))))
             (cons element (insert-X-align (cdr element-list)))))))
          

  (set! (ly:music-property music 'elements)
        (insert-X-align (ly:music-property music 'elements)))
  music)

vowelAlignedLyrics =
 #(define-music-function (parser location music) (ly:music?)
   "Set x alignment so each syllable of @var{music} will be
aligned with the first vowel centered on the note."
   (vowel-center music))
  
theNotes = \relative
{
  g a b c | d c b a | g1
}
theLyrics = \lyricmode {
  Each syl -- la -- ble's vowel is on the note.
}

\score
{
  <<
    \new Voice = "melody" \theNotes
    \new Lyrics \lyricsto "melody" \theLyrics
    \new Lyrics \lyricsto "melody" \vowelAlignedLyrics \theLyrics
  >>
}

Vowel Centered Lyrics.png
Description: Vowel Centered Lyrics.png