Info Catalog lilypond-learning: Explicitly instantiating voices lilypond-learning: Voices contain music

lilypond-learning: Voices and vocals

 
 3.2.3 Voices and vocals
 -----------------------
 
 Vocal music presents a special difficulty: we need to combine two
 expressions – notes and lyrics.
 
    You have already seen the ‘\addlyrics{}’ command, which handles
 simple scores well.  However, this technique is quite limited.  For more
 complex music, you must introduce the lyrics in a ‘Lyrics’ context using
 ‘\new Lyrics’ and explicitly link the lyrics to the notes with
 ‘\lyricsto{}’, using the name assigned to the Voice.
 
      <<
        \new Voice = "one" {
          \relative c'' {
            \autoBeamOff
            \time 2/4
            c4 b8. a16 | g4. f8 | e4 d | c2 |
          }
        }
        \new Lyrics \lyricsto "one" {
          No more let | sins and | sor -- rows | grow. |
        }
      >>
      [image src="" alt="[image of music]" text="image of music"]
 
    Note that the lyrics must be linked to a ‘Voice’ context, _not_ a
 ‘Staff’ context.  This is a case where it is necessary to create ‘Staff’
 and ‘Voice’ contexts explicitly.
 
    The automatic beaming which LilyPond uses by default works well for
 instrumental music, but not so well for music with lyrics, where beaming
 is either not required at all or is used to indicate melismata in the
 lyrics.  In the example above we use the command ‘\autoBeamOff’ to turn
 off the automatic beaming.
 
    Let us reuse the earlier example from Judas Maccabæus to illustrate
 this more flexible technique.  We first recast it to use variables so
 the music and lyrics can be separated from the staff structure.  We also
 introduce a ChoirStaff bracket.  The lyrics themselves must be
 introduced with ‘\lyricmode’ to ensure they are interpreted as lyrics
 rather than music.
 
      global = { \key f \major \time 6/8 \partial 8 }
      
      SopOneMusic = \relative c'' {
        c8 | c8([ bes)] a a([ g)] f | f'4. b, | c4.~ c4
      }
      SopOneLyrics = \lyricmode {
        Let | flee -- cy flocks the | hills a -- dorn, __
      }
      SopTwoMusic = \relative c' {
        r8 | r4. r4 c8 | a'8([ g)] f f([ e)] d | e8([ d)] c bes'
      }
      SopTwoLyrics = \lyricmode {
        Let | flee -- cy flocks the | hills a -- dorn,
      }
      
      \score {
        \new ChoirStaff <<
          \new Staff <<
            \new Voice = "SopOne" {
              \global
              \SopOneMusic
            }
            \new Lyrics \lyricsto "SopOne" {
              \SopOneLyrics
            }
          >>
          \new Staff <<
            \new Voice = "SopTwo" {
              \global
              \SopTwoMusic
            }
            \new Lyrics \lyricsto "SopTwo" {
              \SopTwoLyrics
            }
          >>
        >>
      }
      [image src="" alt="[image of music]" text="image of music"]
 
    This is the basic structure of all vocal scores.  More staves may be
 added as required, more voices may be added to the staves, more verses
 may be added to the lyrics, and the variables containing the music can
 easily be placed in separate files should they become too long.
 
    Here is an example of the first line of a hymn with four verses, set
 for SATB. In this case the words for all four parts are the same.  Note
 how we use variables to separate the music notation and words from the
 staff structure.  See too how a variable, which we have chosen to call
 ‘keyTime’, is used to hold several commands for use within the two
 staves.  In other examples this is often called ‘global’.
 
      keyTime = { \key c \major \time 4/4 \partial 4 }
      
      SopMusic   = \relative c' { c4 | e4. e8 g4  g    | a4   a   g  }
      AltoMusic  = \relative c' { c4 | c4. c8 e4  e    | f4   f   e  }
      TenorMusic = \relative c  { e4 | g4. g8 c4.   b8 | a8 b c d e4 }
      BassMusic  = \relative c  { c4 | c4. c8 c4  c    | f8 g a b c4 }
      
      VerseOne =
        \lyricmode { E -- | ter -- nal fa -- ther, | strong to save, }
      VerseTwo   =
        \lyricmode { O | Christ, whose voice the | wa -- ters heard, }
      VerseThree =
        \lyricmode { O | Ho -- ly Spi -- rit, | who didst brood }
      VerseFour  =
        \lyricmode { O | Tri -- ni -- ty of | love and pow'r }
      
      \score {
        \new ChoirStaff <<
          \new Staff <<
            \clef "treble"
            \new Voice = "Sop"  { \voiceOne \keyTime \SopMusic }
            \new Voice = "Alto" { \voiceTwo \AltoMusic }
            \new Lyrics \lyricsto "Sop" { \VerseOne   }
            \new Lyrics \lyricsto "Sop" { \VerseTwo   }
            \new Lyrics \lyricsto "Sop" { \VerseThree }
            \new Lyrics \lyricsto "Sop" { \VerseFour  }
          >>
          \new Staff <<
            \clef "bass"
            \new Voice = "Tenor" { \voiceOne \keyTime \TenorMusic }
            \new Voice = "Bass"  { \voiceTwo \BassMusic }
          >>
        >>
      }
      [image src="" alt="[image of music]" text="image of music"]
 
 
 See also
 ........
 
    Notation Reference: (lilypond-notation)Vocal music.
 

Info Catalog lilypond-learning: Explicitly instantiating voices lilypond-learning: Voices contain music