Re: Multiple sections in ChoirStaff

[Arvid Grøtting]

Geoff Horton <geoff.horton <at> gmail.com> writes:

> > Also, can someone please explain
> > the significance of the "{ s1 }" in the "\new Lyrics" lines?  I cannot
> > find any reference to this anywhere in the manual.
> 
> That's one way I know this isn't my template--I am really not fond of
> setting up parts that way.

I am -- it saves lots of space for simpler choral music.  ;-)

The thing is, when you have music like this:

    sop -- ra -- no  ly -- rics

    [ staff with soprano voice and alto voice ]

    al     --    to  ly -- rics

...*and* you use \lyricsto, *and* the name of the voice context for the soprano
voice is defined below the \lyricsto command (as it would be above without the
s1 trick), the \lyricsto references a voice name that doesn't exist yet.

So you need to create and name the lyrics context first, to get it in the right
place; then you create and name the voice it belongs to, and finally you add the
actual lyrics.

All of this is only relevant if you have lyrics above the staff which contains
the voice the lyrics should align to, which again should only happen if you 1)
have two voices in a staff and 2) the voices have different lyrics.

In many cases, you'll have differing lyrics only in a few places, in which case 
it's normal to typeset only the divergent lyrics.  In that case, you can save
some typing by having the timing information in the lyrics and avoid \lyricsto,
and then you don't need the s1 trick there.  If the lyrics are different all the
time, you're probably better off with four staves anyway, and again (because the
lyrics are below the staff) you don't need the s1 trick.

But in case you need it, it's there in the template.  ;-)

Hope this explains more than it confuses...

-- 

Arvid