Re: Lyrics and Repeats

[Kaj Persson]

2021-05-15 20:31 skrev David Wright:
> On Sat 15 May 2021 at 16:03:54 (+0200), Kaj Persson wrote:
> > In the Notation manual is described how to manage Lyrics in Repeat
> > conditions. It shows examples the Repeat section following an initial
> > part of music. There are also examples when the Repeat starts the
> > piece and then followed by more music. But if you are searching the
> > combination of these two you search in vain. This was really what I
> > wanted, an initial part before the Repeat then a couple of
> > alternatives and an ending part outside of the repeat and
> > alternatives. Well I understand the author of the manual who left this
> > case aside, because the solution I succeeded to find does not agree
> > with the normal rules described in the manual. The rule with repeated
> > { \skip 1 } was changed. Instead of counting individual tones, you now
> > has to define whole measures. If you do not, the text is gliding away,
> > possibly of the score, it vanishes and you cannot find it! I suppose
> > this is a bug that ought to be corrected.
> >
> > Another observation is that \lyricsto adds an extra space at the start
> > in the case that you define an new lyric at the beginning of the
> > \repeat. So the '\new Lyric \lyricsto "melody" { ' is NOT equivalent
> > with '\new Lyric { \set associatedVoice = "melody" '. This too ought
> > to be a bug.
> >
> > To find this took of course a quite lot of time, and I am still not
> > shure I have catched the full truth. In the following examlple I have
> > used variables for the lyrics, just to test that it work, and it does.
> > The interested can also test removing the "% " before the \lyricsto to
> > see the consequence.
> >
> > I am running LilyPond version 2.21.0 via Frescobaldi. Appended an
> > image of the Music example.
>
> Perhaps you should look back at this post from last week:
> https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/lilypond-user/2021-05/msg00038.html
> You have to choose one method or the other, not a sort of mixture.
>
> BTW your lyrics have no durations, fair enough with method 1, but then
> the same will be true for \skips. Syntactically, however, they must 
> have
> a numeric suffix, whose value is ignored. (§ Invisible rests, p62 NR 
> 2.22.0)
>
> Cheers,
> David.

Thank you, David, for your reply and your efforts to explain my 
experiences. Unfortunately you did not succeed completely. First you 
notice that there are no duration figures with the words/syllables in 
the lyrics. The only exceptions are the skip commands. I have used this 
method because the manual suggests it. I have read that in lyric text 
LilyPond ignores the figure at \skip. I have seen an implied word 
"never", but from your answer one should possibly understand it as 
"sometimes" or at least "most often". I think I have read most of the 
relevant parts in Notation manual and also Learning manual, but, 
according to what I can remember, I have nowhere seen a declaration of 
the conditions when LilyPond in fact uses the duration figure of \skip. 
Obviously I have happened to run across such a condition. It also 
explains my observation that the \skip command does not mean individual 
notes/tones but whole measures. The figure 1 does mean a full measure in 
the tempo 4/4. So it should mean two measures in 2/2, but I have not 
tested that. All this, until these conditions are presented, about when 
LilyPond uses the figure, makes me, from now on, skip the \skip and 
instead use one of the alternatives which I by chance happened to 
discover in the snippets manual (I think it was) namely the empty string 
("") or the underscore (_), which at a quick test seem not to have the 
drawbacks of \skip. The method of defining the duration for every 
word/syllable really does not entice me much. Letting the notes alone 
define the durations is too comfortable for that. Moreover I have not 
found how to return to the normal mode, if I at a short, special 
section, does define the durations for lyrics words.
All this so long, however, does not explain the extra space introduced 
by \lyricsto, so that is another question.

Regards and once again, thank you David for your try to help.
/Kaj
So