Lilypond: Lyrics variants for repeated music

Question

I am currently dealing with a piece of vocal music that has sections which repeat musically but have different lyrics variants for the first and second time of the repeated segments.

Consider the following code, where I have prepared four examples (A–D), each with folded and unfolded repeats:

\version "2.24.1"

% MELODY
% Only the structure is relevant here.
voiceOne = \relative {
  \partial 4 a'4
  \repeat volta 2 { a a a a | }
  \repeat volta 2 { b b b b | }
}

% LYRICS VERSION A
% Basic lyrics example with unchanging lyrics.
% Works in both the folded and the unfolded version.
lyricsA = \lyricmode {
  a
  \repeat volta 2 { a a a a | }
  \repeat volta 2 { b b b b | }
}

% Setting up lyrics snippets for volta variants.
aCommonPart = \lyricmode { a }
aVoltaOne = \lyricmode { a a a a | }
aVoltaTwo = \lyricmode { A A A A | }
bVoltaOne = \lyricmode { b b b b | }
bVoltaTwo = \lyricmode { B B B B | }

% LYRICS VERSION B
% This just uses the same structure for lyrics as a voice would.
% When folded, it fails.
% I would want this to produce output like version D when folded.
lyricsB = \lyricmode {
  \aCommonPart
  \repeat volta 2 {
    \alternative {
      \volta 1 \aVoltaOne
      \volta 2 \aVoltaTwo
    }
  }
  \repeat volta 2 {
    \alternative {
      \volta 1 \bVoltaOne
      \volta 2 \bVoltaTwo
    }
  }
}

% LYRICS VERSION C
% More logical structure compared to version D, but causes bad alignment.
% When unfolded, it obviously fails.
lyricsC = \new Lyrics = "C" {
  \aCommonPart
  <<
    { \aVoltaOne }
    \new Lyrics { \aVoltaTwo }
  >>
  <<
    { \bVoltaOne }
    \new Lyrics { \bVoltaTwo }
  >>
}

% LYRICS VERSION D
% This produces the desired output when folded.
% When unfolded, it obviously fails.
lyricsD = \new Lyrics = "D" {
  \aCommonPart
  <<
    { \aVoltaOne \bVoltaOne }
    \new Lyrics { \aVoltaTwo \bVoltaTwo }
  >>
}

\markup { "A" }
\new Staff \voiceOne
\addlyrics \lyricsA
\new Staff \unfoldRepeats \voiceOne
\addlyrics \lyricsA

\markup { "B" }
\new Staff \voiceOne
\addlyrics \lyricsB
\new Staff \unfoldRepeats \voiceOne
\addlyrics \lyricsB

\markup { "C" }
\new Staff \voiceOne
\addlyrics \lyricsC
\new Staff \unfoldRepeats \voiceOne
\addlyrics \lyricsC

\markup { "D" }
\new Staff \voiceOne
\addlyrics \lyricsD
\new Staff \unfoldRepeats \voiceOne
\addlyrics \lyricsD

This produces the following output:

Is there a better way to achieve version D (folded)? This is the main thing I need and I wanted to know if what I used here could be improved, before using it at a larger scale.

Is there a way to achieve the result of version B (unfolded) and version D (folded) from the same markup? If not, is there a chance that this will work somehow in the future? Version B would be so intuitive...

Answer 1

You can achieve the structure you want (lyric verses stacked when folded, and yet under the correct measures when unfolded) by using the command: \unfolded. This command is used to specify how a repeated section changes when unfolded; it is particularly useful for repeats that aren't exact.

The relevent documentation can be found on this page: https://lilypond.org/doc/v2.24/Documentation/notation/long-repeats#other-variation-in-repeated-sections

---

\version "2.24.1"

%% MUSIC
music = {
    \new Staff {
        \new Voice = "melody" {
            \partial 4
                a'4 |
            \repeat volta 2 {
                a'4 4 4 4 |
            }
            \repeat volta 2 {
                b'4 4 4 4 |
            }
        }
    }
}

%% Lyric snippets
aCommonPart = \lyricmode { a | }
aVoltaOne = \lyricmode { a a a a | }
aVoltaTwo = \lyricmode { A A A A | }
bVoltaOne = \lyricmode { b b b b | }
bVoltaTwo = \lyricmode { B B B B | }

%% LYRICS E
lyricsE = {
    \new Lyrics \lyricsto "melody" {
        \aCommonPart
        \repeat volta 2 {
            \volta #'()
                <<
                    \aVoltaOne
                    \new Lyrics {
                        \aVoltaTwo
                    }
                >>
            \unfolded {
                \volta 1 {
                    \aVoltaOne
                }
                \volta 2 {
                    \aVoltaTwo
                }
            }
        }
        \repeat volta 2 {
            \volta #'()
                <<
                    \bVoltaOne
                    \new Lyrics {
                        \override LyricText.Y-offset = #2.8
                        \bVoltaTwo
                    }
                >>
            \unfolded {
                \volta 1 {
                    \bVoltaOne
                }
                \volta 2 {
                    \bVoltaTwo
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

%% METHOD E
methodE = {
    <<
        \music
        \lyricsE
    >>
}

%% FOLDED SCORE
\score {
    \methodE
}

%% UNFOLDED SCORE
\score {
    \unfoldRepeats
    \methodE
}

This should give a result like your method D when folded, and like your method B when unfolded.

---

(As seen in your method C) the nested \new Lyrics commands introduce an extra vertical offset to separate the verses. This offset for the second volta A's is desired, but a double offset for the second volta B's is not. I have used an override with a magic number to overcome this; I'm sure there is a cleaner way to remove the double offset, but I couldn't find it.