2.3 Songs

This section introduces vocal music and simple song sheets.

2.3.1 Setting simple songs

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)lyrics section ‘lyrics’ in Music Glossary.

Here is the start of the melody to a nursery rhyme, Girls and boys come out to play:

\relative { \key g \major \time 6/8 d''4 b8 c4 a8 | d4 b8 g4 }

The lyrics can be set to these notes, combining both with the \addlyrics keyword. Lyrics are entered by separating each syllable with a space.

<< \relative { \key g \major \time 6/8 d''4 b8 c4 a8 | d4 b8 g4 } \addlyrics { Girls and boys come out to play, } >>

Note the double angle brackets <<…>> around the whole piece to show that the music and lyrics are to occur at the same time.

2.3.2 Aligning lyrics to a melody

Music Glossary: (music-glossary)melisma section ‘melisma’ in Music Glossary, (music-glossary)extender line section ‘extender line’ in Music Glossary.

The next line in the nursery rhyme is The moon doth shine as bright as day. Let’s extend it:

<< \relative { \key g \major \time 6/8 d''4 b8 c4 a8 | d4 b8 g4 g8 | a4 b8 c b a | d4 b8 g4. | } \addlyrics { Girls and boys come out to play, The moon doth shine as bright as day; } >>

Looking at the music, we see that the extra lyrics do not align properly with the notes. The word shine should be sung on two notes, not one. This is called a melisma, a single syllable sung to more than one note. There are several ways to spread a syllable over multiple notes, the simplest being to add a slur across them, for details, see Ties and slurs:

<< \relative { \key g \major \time 6/8 d''4 b8 c4 a8 | d4 b8 g4 g8 | a4 b8 c( b) a | d4 b8 g4. | } \addlyrics { Girls and boys come out to play, The moon doth shine as bright as day; } >>

The words now line up correctly with the notes, but the automatic beaming for the notes above shine as does not look right. We can correct this by inserting manual beaming commands to override the automatic beaming here, for details, see Automatic and manual beams.

<< \relative { \key g \major \time 6/8 d''4 b8 c4 a8 | d4 b8 g4 g8 | a4 b8 c([ b]) a | d4 b8 g4. | } \addlyrics { Girls and boys come out to play, The moon doth shine as bright as day; } >>

As an alternative to using slurs, the melismata may be indicated in just the lyrics by using an underscore _ for each note that should be included in the melisma:

<< \relative { \key g \major \time 6/8 d''4 b8 c4 a8 | d4 b8 g4 g8 | a4 b8 c[ b] a | d4 b8 g4. | } \addlyrics { Girls and boys come out to play, The moon doth shine _ as bright as day; } >>

If a syllable extends over several notes or a single very long note an extender line is usually drawn from the syllable extending under all the notes for that syllable. It is entered as two underscores __. Here is an example from the first three bars of Dido’s Lament, from Purcell’s Dido and Æneas:

<< \relative { \key g \minor \time 3/2 g'2 a bes | bes2( a) b2 | c4.( bes8 a4. g8 fis4.) g8 | fis1 } \addlyrics { When I am laid, am laid __ in earth, } >>

None of the examples so far have involved words containing more than one syllable. Such words are usually split one syllable to a note, with hyphens between syllables. Such hyphens are entered as two dashes, resulting in a centered hyphen between the syllables. Here is an example showing this and everything we have learned so far about aligning lyrics to notes.

<< \relative { \key g \major \time 3/4 \partial 4 d'4 | g4 g a8( b) | g4 g b8( c) | d4 d e | c2 } \addlyrics { A -- way in a __ man -- ger, no __ crib for a bed, } >>

Some lyrics, especially those in Italian, require the opposite: setting more than one syllable to a single note. This is achieved by linking the syllables together with a single underscore _ (with no spaces), or enclosing them in quotes. Here’s an example from Rossini’s Figaro, where al has to be sung on the same note as the go of Largo in Figaro’s aria Largo al factotum:

<< \relative { \clef "bass" \key c \major \time 6/8 c'4.~ 8 d b | c8([ d]) b c d b | c8 } \addlyrics { Lar -- go_al fac -- to -- tum del -- la cit -- tà } >>

See also

Notation Reference: (notation)Vocal music section ‘Vocal music’ in Notation Reference.

2.3.3 Lyrics to multiple staves

The simple approach using \addlyrics can be used for placing lyrics under more than one staff. Here is an example from Handel’s Judas Maccabæus:

<< \relative { \key f \major \time 6/8 \partial 8 c''8 | c8([ bes]) a a([ g]) f | f'4. b, | c4.~ 4 } \addlyrics { Let flee -- cy flocks the hills a -- dorn, __ } \relative { \key f \major \time 6/8 \partial 8 r8 | r4. r4 c'8 | a'8([ g]) f f([ e]) d | e8([ d]) c bes'4 } \addlyrics { Let flee -- cy flocks the hills a -- dorn, } >>

Scores any more complex than this simple example are better produced by separating out the score structure from the notes and lyrics with variables. These are discussed in Organizing pieces with variables.

See also

Notation Reference: (notation)Vocal music section ‘Vocal music’ in Notation Reference.

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