Re: unusual lyric placement in second verse

[Simon Albrecht]

On 14.02.2016 16:42, address@hidden wrote:
> I'm not sure how your suggestion would mesh with the piece's overall 
> structure;
> Here's a more complete take:
> http://lilybin.com/l8kuff/2

There’s nothing in that link – could you try again?

> (I tried to trim extra stuff for a minimal example).
> A complete version is here 
> http://imslp.nl/imglnks/usimg/d/db/IMSLP04156-Bach_-_BGA_439-518.pdf
> it's number 16 (page 8).
>
> The A section is repeated with different lyrics, this is followed by
>  a few more, non-repeated, phrases.

It’s a known problem that we don’t have a satisfactory interface for 
that kind of structure in lyrics. Ideally there would be some sensible 
input method, automatically arranging the lyrics so the alternatives for 
the repeat are correctly arranged, with braces, and the following piece 
centered. But this is no more than a wish.
Given the current set of tools, I’d suggest to continue

> I thought that it would be sensible and useful to have separate
> variables for the full melody, the full lyrics, bass, and figures.
> I like this because it keeps the commands within the score block
> relatively simple, and thus allows me to easily turn off the lyrics 
> (for example)
> by just commenting out a single line.

Of course; I don’t (yet) do it the same way myself, but I understand the 
intent. But I hope you’re getting my point: if I have to skim through 
100 lines of code first and understand which variable points where, that 
keeps me from getting at the actual problem.

> This gets to something that is not (to my knowledge) well documented: what
> is a good way of organizing and structuring the lilypond content?

Well, there are some hints in the manuals, but basically there is a lot 
of liberty in this respect. Everything is possible, from the most simple 
structure without using variables (though that’s almost never sensible) 
to very advanced Scheme framework like GridLY or other solutions.
It would be desirable to have more generally accepted standards here, 
for multiple reasons, but on the other hand it would really take away 
flexibility. I think that in this field LilyPond is just a very ‘young’ 
project and we’ll have to go a long way still.

Best, Simon