Re: reciting text over line breaks

[David Wright]

On Fri 10 Nov 2017 at 09:43:04 (-0500), Benjamin Bloomfield wrote:
> Yes, but I want to allow line breaks in the middle of those breves if it
> makes sense for line breaks to occur there.  This is actually the way I had
> been doing it, but it is a tedious process of trial and error to figure out
> that, e.g., the line should break after "and" in "always and everywhere",
> and I'd really like to find a way to make this automatic.

I suppose it depends on whether you're trying to duplicate the effect
of that publication or not. I take my cue from the first two lines,
and set everyhing ragged-right. Each linebreak occurs either at a
barline or a breath.

The benefits are that you're less likely to get lost on the page,
especially when the text is unfamiliar, or in Latin, or one syllable's
melisma is spread over two lines. And you can see where each breath
and phrase has to reach. These benefit the cantor and the choir.

The downsides are that it takes up more room (which is why newspapers
justify narrow columns), and some people just think that everything
must be justified. These benefit the congregation if they're given
copies.

Even with the Mark and John passion gospels, there wasn't enough text
to consider automating it. I would imagine there'll be scheming
involved, which is beyond my capabilities anyway. Sorry.

> >   It \once \override LyricText.self-alignment-X = #LEFT "is truly right
> > and just,"

ll = \lyricmode { \once \override LyricText.self-alignment-X = #LEFT }
cc = \lyricmode { \once \override LyricText.self-alignment-X = #CENTER }
rr = \lyricmode { \once \override LyricText.self-alignment-X = #RIGHT }

or suchlike is handy in any score.

Cheers,
David.