Re: Lyrics alignment, stanza numbers, metadata

[Don Blaheta]

So I managed to find workarounds for two of the problems:

> 1) Is there any way to make the stanza numbers line up?  Virtually every
> time I've done stanza numbers, they've looked like this, sometimes worse
> (overprinting the start of the line).

The answer I've found is "forget stanzas and use VocalName".  Instead of

  \set stanza = "1."

you write

  \set vocalName = "1."

and it will print the numbers to the left of the staff.  Then put

  \context { \Score
    \override VocalName  #'extra-offset = #'(6 . 0)
  }

in your \layout block, and you're good to go.  If in *addition* you

  \set vocNam = "1."

then the stanza number will be printed on *every line*, which is how a
lot of hymnals are printed, and frankly pretty useful.  (You still have
to define both vocalName and vocNam, though, afaict.)

> 2) I've noticed lyrics misalignments before, but they seem worse
> recently; this piece is a good example.  Actually, as I look at it I
> think the lyrics syllables are horizontally centred with each other, but
> left-aligned with the note head.  That's not how I thought it was
> supposed to work (and it doesn't look very good)....

I'm not sure where I even picked up the use of \lyrics, since I now
can't find it in the manual, but that's the source of the problem.
Consider the following example:

  \version "2.6.4"
  
  barNotes = \relative { \context Voice = "bar" { c d e f } }
  barWordsI = \lyrics { iiiiiiii jjj kkk lll }
  barWordsII = \lyrics { iii jjj kkkkkkkk lll }
  \score {<<
      \new Voice { \barNotes }
      \new Lyrics \lyricsto "bar" \lyricmode { eeeeeeee  fff ggg hhh }
      \new Lyrics \lyricsto "bar" \lyricmode { eee  fff gggggggg hhh }
      \new Lyrics \lyricsto "bar" \lyricmode { \barWordsI }
      \new Lyrics \lyricsto "bar" \lyricmode { \barWordsII }
  >>}

It appears that if you put both the notes and the lyrics into variables,
they won't line up, as shown in the bottom two lines of lyrics.  If you
put the melody in place (removing \barNotes), the lyrics line up, and
you just have to remove a couple blank lines.  If you put the lyrics in
place, everything lines up perfectly.

So, I think this is a bug, but if you're seeing this behaviour, the
workaround seems to be just to not store your lyrics in variables.

-- 
-=-Don address@hidden<http://www.blahedo.org/>-=-
A pedestal is as much a prison as any small, confined space.
                                                --Gloria Steinem