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Lyrics and chords

In this section we show how to typeset a song. This file is included as flowing.ly.

\header {
        title = "The river is flowing"
        composer = "Traditional"
}
\include "paper16.ly"
melody = \notes \relative c' {
        \partial 8
        \key c \minor
        g8 |
        c4 c8 d [es () d] c4 | f4 f8 g [es() d] c g |
        c4 c8 d [es () d] c4 | d4 es8 d c4.
        \bar "|."
}

text = \lyrics {
        The ri -- ver is flo- __ wing, flo -- wing and gro -- wing, the
        ri -- ver is flo -- wing down to the sea.
}

accompaniment =\chords {
        r8
        c2:3- f:3-.7 d:min es4 c8:min r8
        c2:min f:min7 g:7^3.5 c:min }

\score {
        \simultaneous {
          %\accompaniment
          \context ChordNames \accompaniment

          \addlyrics
            \context Staff = mel {
              \property Staff.noAutoBeaming = ##t
              \property Staff.automaticMelismata = ##t
              \melody
            }
            \context Lyrics \text
        }
        \midi  { \tempo 4=72 }
        \paper { linewidth = 10.0\cm }
}

The result would look this.¹

Again, we will dissect the file line by line.

        \header {

        title = "The river is flowing"
        composer = "Traditional (?)"

        \include "paper16.ly"

        melody = \notes \relative c' {

        \partial 8

The piece starts with an anacrusis of one eighth.

        \key c \minor

        c4 c8 d [es () d] c4 | f4 f8 g [es() d] c g |
        c4 c8 d [es () d] c4 | d4 es8 d c4.
        \bar "|."

We use explicit beaming. Since this is a song, we turn automatic beams off, and use explicit beaming where needed.

        }

        text = \lyrics {

  The4 ri -- ver is flo- __ wing,  flo -- wing and gro -- wing, the
  ri- ver is flo- __ wing down to the sea.
}

        accompaniment =\chords {

        r8

        c2:3- f:3-.7

A chord is started by the tonic of the chord. The first one lasts a half note. An unadorned note creates a major triad. Since a minor triad is wanted, 3- is added to modify the third to be small. 7 modifies (adds) a seventh, which is small by default to create the f a c es chord. Multiple modifiers must be separated by dots.

        d:min es4 c8:min r8

Some modifiers have predefined names, e.g. min is the same as 3-, so d-min is a minor d chord.

        c2:min f:min7 g:7^3.5 c:min }

A named modifier min and a normal modifier 7 do not have to be separated by a dot. Tones from a chord are removed with chord subtractions. Subtractions are started with a caret, and they are also separated by dots. In this example, g:7^3.5 produces a minor seventh. The brace ends the sequential music.

        \score {
                \simultaneous {

        %\accompaniment

        \context ChordNames \accompaniment

Normally, the notes that you enter are transformed into note heads. Note heads alone make no sense, they need surrounding information: a key signature, a clef, staff lines, etc. They need context. In LilyPond, these symbols are created by objects called `interpretation contexts'. Interpretation contexts exist for generating notation (`notation context') and for generating sound (`performance context'). These objects only exist during a run of LilyPond.

By default, LilyPond will create a Staff context for you. If you would remove the % sign in the previous line, you would see that mechanism in action.

We don't want that default here, because we want chord names. The command above explicitly creates an interpretation context of ChordNames type to interpret the music \accompaniment.

        \addlyrics

The lyrics should be aligned with the melody. This is done by combining both with \addlyrics. \addlyrics takes two pieces of music (usually a melody and lyrics, in that order) and aligns the syllables of the second piece under the notes of the first piece. If you would reverse the order, the notes would be aligned on the lyrics, which is not very useful, and looks silly.

        \context Staff = mel {

The first argument of \addlyrics is the melody. We instantiate a Staff context explicitly: should you choose to remove the comment before the "note heads" version of the accompaniment, the accompaniment will be on a nameless staff. The melody has to be on staff different from the accompaniment. This is accomplished by giving the melody and accompaniment staffs different names.

        \property Staff.noAutoBeaming = ##t

LilyPond internally uses GUILE, a Scheme-interpreter. Scheme is a language from the LISP family. You can learn more about Scheme at http://www.scheme.org. It is used to represent data throughout the whole program. The hash-sign (#) accesses GUILE directly: the code following the hash-sign is evaluated as Scheme. The boolean value true is #t in Scheme, so for LilyPond true looks like ##t.

If Scheme scares you, don't worry. You don't need to know Scheme to create beautiful sheet music.

        \property Staff.automaticMelismata = ##t

          \melody
        }

        \context Lyrics \text

        \midi  { \tempo 4=72}

Syntactically, \midi is similar to \paper { }, since it also specifies an output method. You can specify the tempo using the \tempo command, in this case the tempo of quarter notes is set to 72 beats per minute.

        \paper { linewidth = 10.0\cm }

Footnotes

1. The titling and font size shown may differ, since the titling in this document is not generated by ly2dvi.

Please send GNU LilyPond questions and comments to lilypond-user@gnu.org.

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Copyright (c) 1997--2001 Han-Wen Nienhuys and Jan Nieuwenhuizen.

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