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4.2.3 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 context.

<<
  \new Voice = "one" {
    \relative {
      \autoBeamOff
      \time 2/4
      c''4 b8. a16 | g4. f8 | e4 d | c2 |
    }
  }
  \new Lyrics \lyricsto "one" {
    No more let | sins and | sor -- rows | grow. |
  }
>>

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 that 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''8 | c8([ bes)] a a([ g)] f | f'4. b, | c4.~ 4
}
SopOneLyrics = \lyricmode {
  Let | flee -- cy flocks the | hills a -- dorn, __
}
SopTwoMusic = \relative {
  r8 | r4. r4 c'8 | 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
      }
    >>
  >>
}

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'4 | e4. e8 g4  g    | a4   a   g  }
AltoMusic  = \relative { c'4 | c4. c8 e4  e    | f4   f   e  }
TenorMusic = \relative {  e4 | g4. g8 c4.   b8 | a8 b c d e4 }
BassMusic  = \relative {  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 }
    >>
  >>
}

See also

Notation Reference: Vocal music.