Re: Issue 329 in lilypond: lyrics messed up when assigned to voices with different rhythms

[Mats Bengtsson]

Francisco Vila wrote:
> Now my own abstract:
> --- \new Lyrics  \lyricsto v { \textNodurations }      is the only
> secure way to align lyrics to a voice, and durations are superfluous
>   
Yes, \lyricsto (and \addlyrics for simple cases) are the main methods 
described in the
manual and the main methods to use.
> --- \lyrics is a sort of useless or impractical or not recommended
> shortcut that nobody understands well.
>   
The \lyrics command is now described as "depracated" in the manual. The 
corresponding
commands \figures, \chords and \drums are briefly described in the 
manual as shortcuts for ...
> --- possible bugs, there seem to be two: the syllables being left
> aligned,
It's a well-known limitation that the syllables are not "cleverly 
aligned" to the notes,
as long as you have not specified the associatedVoice of the Lyrics 
context. This is
done implicitly if you use \lyricsto. This is a problem both if you 
explicitly specify the
durations of the lyrics and if you use \lyricsto together with a 
\Devnull context (or
if you misuse the \lyrics command).
I wouldn't call this limitation a bug, since it has to do with the fact 
that LilyPond doesn't
know what note heads to align to. However, with my limited knowledge of 
LilyPond
internals, it seems that it should be possible to in some way connect 
each syllable to the
note column at the same time instant (if there is one) and do the 
alignment relative to that
note column. So you might want to file a feature request that this 
should be possible.
Still, it wouldn't be possible to get the clever alignment, meaning that 
you automatically
get left alignment at the start of a melisma, since this requires 
LilyPond to know what
Voice context to follow, in terms of melismata.
>  and the lack of warning when durations are not specified in
> lyrics.
>   
This is a misunderstanding! You always specify the durations of lyrics. 
Just as you get
quarter notes if you start a .ly file with
{ c d e f }
you will get syllables with quarter note duration if you input
\lyricmode{ Here is some text }
The simple rule for durations is the same for notes, lyrics, chords and 
figures and is
described in NR 1.2.1.1 "Durations". In other words, you cannot have 
lyrics where
the durations are not specified.



   /Mats