Re: vowel aligned lyrics - want to improve it

[Wolf Alight]

A great suggestion. To override was the way to go.

So here it comes! 

My inner perfectionist only have one complaint: the note width has been hard coded and the value should be adjusted if non default notehead sizes are used. 

I haven't tested this a lot yet so maybe there are bugs. The code boiled down to suprisingly few lines in the end proving the power of Lilypond once you know the commands. 

Thank you Carl for diving instructions!

/Tor

\version "2.12.1"

#(define vowel-set (list->char-set (string->list "AEIOUYÅÄÖaeiouyåäö"))) 

#(define (width grob text-string)

(let* (

      (layout (ly:grob-layout grob))

      (props (ly:grob-alist-chain grob (ly:output-def-lookup layout 'text-font-defaults))))

     (cdr (ly:stencil-extent (ly:text-interface::interpret-markup layout props (markup text-string)) X))))

#(define (center-on-vowel grob)              

         (let* ((syllable (ly:grob-property-data grob 'text))

       (vowel-count (string-count syllable vowel-set)) 

                (vowel-position (string-index syllable vowel-set)) 

       (prevowel (substring syllable 0 vowel-position))

       (vowel (substring syllable vowel-position (+ vowel-position 1)))

       (prevowel-width (width grob prevowel))

       (vowel-width (width grob vowel))

; TODO: get the note width dynamically instead of hard coded

(note-width 1.5))

      (- (/ (- note-width vowel-width) 2) prevowel-width)))

   

chant = \relative c'' { c4 d4 c4 c4 c4 }

words = \lyricmode { aligned words do come easy }

\score {

  <<

    \new Voice = "melody" \chant    

    \new Lyrics \lyricsto "melody" \words

    >>  

}  

\layout {

    \context {

      \Lyrics

      \override LyricText #'X-offset = #center-on-vowel

    } 

}