This came up in the user list just a month ago, when I asked about the use of _ instead of \skip1 causing a lyric to be misaligned because it started a melisma. By chance I found the only (?) documented reference to "", which solved my problem with a less ugly notation than \skip1! It seems that \skip1, _, and "" all have subtle differences which the documentation doesn't make sufficiently clear...
Below is the mail that summarised these findings. Paul From: Michael Werner <reznae...@gmail.com> To: Paul Hodges <p...@cassland.org> Cc: <lilypond-u...@gnu.org> Sent: 04/12/2023 12:37 Subject: Re: Centering a word before a gap in the lyrics Hi Paul, On Mon, Dec 4, 2023 at 6:56 AM Paul Hodges <p...@cassland.org> wrote: I don't know where in the documentation the difference in behaviour between \skip1 and "" as opposed to _ is explained. It isn't much of an explanation, but in http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.25/Documentation/notation/lyrics-and-repeats#index-_005cskip-1 is the line Note: do not use an underscore, _, to skip notes – an underscore indicates a melisma, causing the preceding syllable to be left-aligned. A bit terse, to be sure. But mentioning an alignment issue I've always stayed with using \skip to skip over a note, and only used _ when it really was a melisma not explicitly notated in the music (such as a tie or a slur). But the opportunity is missed on these pages, the first of which actually conflates the "" and _ notation: https://lilypond.org/doc/v2.25/Documentation/snippets/rhythms_003a-skips-in-lyric-mode-_00282_0029 https://lilypond.org/doc/v2.25/Documentation/snippets/rhythms_003a-skips-in-lyric-mode This was the first time I'd seen the use of "" for something like this. I'll have to keep it in mind. And looking at those two snippet pages you linked they make it seem like all three options are equivalent. Yet in the NR page I linked it says they are different. Well, I guess the important bit is you found something that does what you need, and does it in a way that you're okay with.-- Michael From: Michael Käppler <xmichae...@web.de> To: Paul Hodges <p...@cassland.org>, "bug-lilypond@gnu.org" <bug-lilypond@gnu.org> Sent: 04/01/2024 9:07 Subject: Re: Skipping syllables / LyricExtender Thanks, Paul, but is this mentioned somewhere in the docs? AFAICS, they recommend using \skip everywhere for skipping notes. "" is shorter and more logical, since, unlike `\skip (dur)` it does not request the duration argument, which is ignored in Lyrics, anyway. Michael Am 04.01.2024 um 00:12 schrieb Paul Hodges: Replace the \skip 4 with "", as in: %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% \version "2.25.0" { c' (d') e' f' } \addlyrics { foo __ "" bar } %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Paul From: Michael Käppler via bug-lilypond <bug-lilypond@gnu.org> Hi all, please consider the following example: \version "2.25.0" { c' (d') e' f' } \addlyrics { foo __ \skip 4 bar } The \skip command does not terminate the extender line. This is at least unexpected. Opinions? Michael
