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<p>
<a name="Entering-lyrics"></a>
Next: <a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Working-with-lyrics-and-variables.html#Working-with-lyrics-and-variables">Working with lyrics and variables</a>,
Previous: <a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="Setting-simple-songs.html#Setting-simple-songs">Setting simple songs</a>,
Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Common-notation-for-vocals.html#Common-notation-for-vocals">Common notation for vocals</a>
<hr>
</div>
<h5 class="subsubsection">2.1.1.3 Entering lyrics</h5>
<p><a name="index-lyrics-1862"></a><a name="index-g_t_005clyricmode-1863"></a><a name="index-g_t_005clyricmode-1864"></a>
<a name="index-punctuation-1865"></a><a name="index-spaces_002c-in-lyrics-1866"></a><a name="index-quotes_002c-in-lyrics-1867"></a>
Lyrics are entered in a special input mode, which can be introduced
by the keyword <code>\lyricmode</code>, or by using <code>\addlyrics</code> or
<code>\lyricsto</code>. In this mode you can enter lyrics,
with punctuation and accents, and the input <code>d</code> is not parsed as
a pitch, but rather as a one letter syllable. Syllables are entered
like notes, but with pitches replaced by text. For example,
<pre class="example">\lyricmode { Twin-4 kle4 twin- kle litt- le star2 }
</pre>
<p>There are two main methods to specify the horizontal placement
of the syllables, either by specifying the duration of each syllable
explicitly, like in the example above, or by automatically aligning
the lyrics to a melody or other voice of music, using <code>\addlyrics</code>
or <code>\lyricsto</code>.
<!-- TODO: broken -->
<!-- For more details see @ref{The Lyrics context}. -->
<p>A word or syllable of lyrics begins with an alphabetic character, and ends
with
any space or digit. The following characters can be any character
that is not a digit or white space.
<p>Any character that is not a digit or white space will be regarded as
part of the syllable; one important consequence of this is that a word
can end with <code>}</code>, which often leads to the following mistake:
<pre class="example">\lyricmode { lah- lah}
</pre>
<p>In this example, the <code>}</code> is included in the final syllable, so the
opening brace is not balanced and the input file will probably not
compile.
<p><a name="index-g_t_005cproperty-in-_005clyricmode-1868"></a><a name="index-g_t_005cproperty-in-_005clyricmode-1869"></a>
<p class="noindent">Similarly, a period which follows an alphabetic sequence is included in
the resulting string. As a consequence, spaces must be inserted around
property commands: do <em>not</em> write
<pre class="example">\override Score.LyricText #'font-shape = #'italic
</pre>
<p class="noindent">but instead use
<pre class="example">\override Score . LyricText #'font-shape = #'italic
</pre>
<p><a name="index-g_t_005f-1870"></a><a name="index-g_t_005f-1871"></a>
<a name="index-spaces_002c-in-lyrics-1872"></a><a name="index-quotes_002c-in-lyrics-1873"></a><a name="index-ties_002c-in-lyrics-1874"></a>
In order to assign more than one syllable to a single note, you can
surround them with quotes or use a <code>_</code> character, to get spaces
between syllables, or use tilde symbol (<code>~</code>) to get a lyric tie.
<blockquote>
<pre class="verbatim">
\time 3/4
\relative c' { c2 e4 g2 e4 }
\addlyrics { gran- de_a- mi- go }
\addlyrics { pu- "ro y ho-" nes- to }
\addlyrics { pu- ro~y~ho- nes- to }
</pre>
<p>
<a href="../59/lily-c4ff9864.ly">
<img align="middle"
border="0" src="../59/lily-c4ff9864.png" alt="[image of music]">
</a>
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The lyric tie is implemented with the Unicode character U+203F, so be
sure to have a font (Like DejaVuLGC) installed that includes this
glyph.
<p>To enter lyrics with characters from non-English languages, or with
accented and special characters (such as the heart symbol or slanted quotes),
simply insert the characters directly into the input file and save
it with UTF-8 encoding. See <a href="Text-encoding.html#Text-encoding">Text encoding</a>, for more info.
<blockquote>
<pre class="verbatim">
\relative c' { e4 f e d e f e2 }
\addlyrics { He said: “Let my peo ple go”. }
</pre>
<p>
<a href="../eb/lily-ba3afbbf.ly">
<img align="middle"
border="0" src="../eb/lily-ba3afbbf.png" alt="[image of music]">
</a>
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>To use normal quotes in lyrics, add a backslash before the
quotes. For example,
<blockquote>
<pre class="verbatim">
\relative c' { \time 3/4 e4 e4. e8 d4 e d c2. }
\addlyrics { "\"I" am so lone- "ly\"" said she }
</pre>
<p>
<a href="../9a/lily-54e9db1e.ly">
<img align="middle"
border="0" src="../9a/lily-54e9db1e.png" alt="[image of music]">
</a>
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The full definition of a word start in Lyrics mode is somewhat more
complex.
<p>A word in Lyrics mode begins with: an alphabetic character, <code>_</code>,
<code>?</code>, <code>!</code>, <code>:</code>, <code>'</code>, the control characters <code>^A</code>
through <code>^F</code>, <code>^Q</code> through <code>^W</code>, <code>^Y</code>, <code>^^</code>,
any 8-bit character with ASCII code over 127, or a two-character
combination of a backslash followed by one of <code>`</code>, <code>'</code>,
<code>"</code>, or <code>^</code>.
<!-- " to balance double quotes for not-so-bright context-sensitive editors -->
<p>To define variables containing lyrics, the function <code>lyricmode</code>
must be used.
<pre class="example">verseOne = \lyricmode { Joy to the world the Lord is come }
\score {
<<
\new Voice = "one" \relative c'' {
\autoBeamOff
\time 2/4
c4 b8. a16 g4. f8 e4 d c2
}
\addlyrics { \verseOne }
>>
}
</pre>
<p class="noindent">
<h5 class="subsubheading">See also</h5>
<p class="indent">
<p>Internals Reference:
<a name="index-LyricText-1875"></a><a href="../lilypond-internals/LyricText.html#LyricText">LyricText</a>,
<a name="index-LyricSpace-1876"></a><a href="../lilypond-internals/LyricSpace.html#LyricSpace">LyricSpace</a>.
<!-- footer_tag --><br><hr>
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<p>
Next: <a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Working-with-lyrics-and-variables.html#Working-with-lyrics-and-variables">Working with lyrics and variables</a>,
Previous: <a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="Setting-simple-songs.html#Setting-simple-songs">Setting simple songs</a>,
Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Common-notation-for-vocals.html#Common-notation-for-vocals">Common notation for vocals</a>
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