Re: Conditionally including lyrics

[Matthew Collett]

On 3/12/2011, at 12:02 am, David Kastrup wrote:

> Marc Hohl <address@hidden> writes:
> 
>> I have a lot of small music pieces with several stanzas which I store
>> like this
>> 
>> textA = \lyricmode {
>>  \set stanza = "1. "
>>  this is the first stan -- za.
>> }
>> 
>> textB = \lyricmode {
>>  \set stanza = "2. "
>>  and this one is the se -- cond.
>> }
>> 
>> textC = ...
> 
> Why?  If you want them processed automatically, why do you put them into
> dissociated macros and expect Lilypond to go hunting for them?

I don't know why Marc does it, but I do essentially the same thing for hymns, 
where the same text can be combined with different tunes (or alternate settings 
of the same tune), and conversely the same tune can be used for different 
texts.  Each text lives in one file, laid out much as Marc has above, each 
musical setting in another file, and then a master file pulls the two together. 
   

> Is there a particular reason you want your stanzas to be stored in a
> manner not useful for the processing you plan to do with them?

Can you suggest a more useful manner of storing them? 

Incidentally, this is one the places in which I find lilypond's refusal to 
allow numerals in variable names irritating: I'd much rather label the stanzas 
'verse1', 'verse2' etc., but have to choose between the verbose 'verseOne', 
'verseTwo' or the awkward 'verseA', 'verseB'.


Best wishes,
Matthew