Write something in the music and place in in Lyrics-like context?

[Urs Liska]

Hi,

there's something that has been on my mind for quite some time, and I'd 
like to get some feedback if this would be possible to have (or if it 
actually already *is* available somehow).

I would like to create some new contexts to hold material like analysis 
symbols and the like (the same would be useful for an alternative 
approach to bass figures).

Basically these would have to be similar to lyrics in so far as their 
items are aligned to notes, should be printed on a common baseline (i.e. 
not directly attached to the staff objects), and there should be the 
option of several layers, like stanzas (e.g. to provide symbols in 
different systems or to reflect sections in different keys etc.)

But I would like to have the option to encode these items not in a 
separate variable but along with the music itself. For some use cases 
(or users' mindsets) it would be much more straightforward to encode, 
say, a bass figure directly along with the note it refers to instead of 
having to use potentially large numbers of spacer rests to push them to 
the right position. Something like

    c'4 -\fig <3 4 6+>

or

    c'4 -\analysis "D79>"

Of course the syntax of these commands is irrelevant at the moment. But 
the idea is: would it be possible to write something like such a 
function and have the resulting element either

- be injected/projected/whatever to a separate "lyrics" context, or
- have it printed in a way that is consistent with how such separate 
contexts would behave with regard to staff spacing etc.

?

Actually I'm not in need of a solution right now, only some estimates of 
how realistic it is to implement a system like this. I'm going to give a 
presentation about LilyPond (and text based tools) for use in music 
theory, and these are some things I had always wanted to do but didn't 
start due to the lack of an actual current need.

Best
Urs

PS: Anyone in or near Bremen?