Re: Change stanza formatting

[David F.]

On Mar 1, 2019, at 6:21 PM, Aaron Hill <address@hidden> wrote:

> On 2019-03-01 10:20 am, David F. wrote:
>> There’s one small issue that I noticed.  I’m engraving music with
>> simultaneous bilingual lyrics and I’m using the stanza number to print
>> the language name. Since the language name is almost always longer
>> than the first syllable, it is making that first note column wider
>> than it would be without the stanza number. Is there a way to keep the
>> sanza number from influencing the width of the note column?
>> (On the one hand, the extra space isn’t necessarily a big deal.  But
>> the whole reason I want to print the language names on top of the
>> lyrics instead of to the left of them is that I’ve run into cases
>> where the extra text in the stanza number is preventing me from
>> getting everything I want onto the first line of music.)
> 
> Would it work to use abbreviations for the languages?  (e.g. "E:" and "F:" 
> for "English" and "Français".)  Unless your first LyricText is particularly 
> wide, there should be enough room for such an abbreviation as a traditional 
> StanzaNumber without the need to play around with properties.

That’s a great suggestion, but English and French are just what were in the 
snippet I got from the Lilypond manual.  We’re actually singing in English and 
Español.  So I could do “Eng.” and “Esp.”, but I’m worried that abbreviations 
would be more confusing than helpful.

> As an alternative, you could see if right-aligning the StanzaNumbers works 
> for you.  Since this means the LyricTexts and StanzaNumbers share a common 
> right extent, there should be no additional space added before the next 
> syllable:
> 
> %%%%
> \version "2.19.82"
> 
> \layout { \context { \Lyrics
>  \override StanzaNumber.direction = #UP
>  \override StanzaNumber.side-axis = #Y
>  \override StanzaNumber.padding = #0.2
>  \override StanzaNumber.X-offset = #(lambda (grob)
>    (define (grob-list-property glst prop)
>      (map (lambda (g) (ly:grob-property g prop)) glst))
>    (let* ((sse (ly:grob-object grob 'side-support-elements))
>           (lyrics (cdr (ly:grob-array->list sse)))
>           (lyrics-extents (grob-list-property lyrics 'X-extent))
>           (lyrics-widths (map interval-length lyrics-extents))
>           (lyrics-offsets (grob-list-property lyrics 'X-offset))
>           (lyrics-rights (map + lyrics-offsets lyrics-widths))
>           (lyrics-right (apply max lyrics-rights))
>           (grob-extent (ly:grob-property grob 'X-extent))
>           (grob-width (interval-length grob-extent)))
>     (- lyrics-right grob-width)))
> } }
> 
> \new Voice \relative { \time 3/4 g'2 e4 a2 f4 g2. }
> \addlyrics { \set stanza = #"English" Hi, my name is Bert. }
> \addlyrics { \set stanza =  #"Français" Oooh, ché -- ri, je t'aime }
> %%%%
> 
> NOTE: The code above considers all of the LyricTexts in the column, not just 
> the current line.  As a result, there is a consistent right-alignment of the 
> StanzaNumbers based on the widest of the LyricTexts.

I had to add \override StanzaNumber.Y-offset = 
#ly:side-position-interface::y-aligned-side in order for the stanza text to not 
overlap the lyrics.  And I did’t like the way it looked at first.  But it’s 
grown on me.  I’ll probably play with it some more.

> Assuming you want left-alignment without the added space to the right, you 
> will probably have to resort to altering the actual extents of the 
> StanzaNumber:
> 
> %%%%
> \version "2.19.82"
> 
> #(define (interval-max . args) (reduce interval-union empty-interval args))
> #(define ((side-support-property func prop) grob)
>  (let* ((sse (ly:grob-object grob 'side-support-elements))
>         (elems (cdr (ly:grob-array->list sse)))
>         (props (map (lambda (g) (ly:grob-property g prop)) elems)))
>    (apply func props)))
> 
> \layout { \context { \Lyrics
>  \override StanzaNumber.direction = #UP
>  \override StanzaNumber.side-axis = #Y
>  \override StanzaNumber.padding = #0.2
>  \override StanzaNumber.X-offset = #(side-support-property min 'X-offset)
>  \override StanzaNumber.X-extent = #(side-support-property interval-max 
> 'X-extent)
>  \override StanzaNumber.Y-offset = #ly:side-position-interface::y-aligned-side
> } }
> 
> \new Voice \relative { \time 3/4 g'2 c,4 a'2 f4 g2. }
> \addlyrics { \set stanza = #"English" Hi, my name is Bert. }
> \addlyrics { \set stanza =  #"Français" Oooh, ché -- ri, je t'aime }
> %%%%
> 
> But be advised this approach can generate overlapping ink.  In the example 
> above, I lowered the E in the first measure to middle C to demonstrate this.  
> The collision occurs because we told LilyPond that the StanzaNumber only 
> extended as far to the right as the supporting LyricTexts.

This does what I was looking for.  Thanks for all your help!  I see your point 
about overlapping ink.  I suspect that in practice it won’t be much of an 
issue.  And I can always set the StanzaNumber.Y-extent to put some vertical 
padding between the Stanza and what ever is above it.  Definitely workable.

That said, now that I’ve got what I want, I’m not really happy with it.  It 
looks very busy visually and feels more confusing than helpful.  I’m thinking 
that your idea for right-aligning the stanzas may be the more fruitful 
direction to pursue.

Thanks again!
David