#### 3.11.3 More stanzas

The lyrics should be aligned with the note heads of the melody. To achieve this, each line of lyrics should be marked to correspond with the melodic line. This is done automatically when `\lyricsto`, but it can also be done manually.

To this end, give the Voice context an identity

         \context Voice = duet {
              \time 3/4
              g2 e4 a2 f4 g2.  }

Then set the Lyrics contexts to names starting with that identity followed by a dash. In the preceding example, the Voice identity is `duet`, so the identities of the Lyricss are marked `duet-1` and `duet-2`

           \context Lyrics = "duet-1" {
             Hi, my name is Bert. }
           \context Lyrics = "duet-2" {
             Ooooo, ch\'e -- ri, je t'aime. }

The complete example is shown here

>          \score {
>            <<
>              \notes \relative c'' \context Voice = duet {
>                \time 3/4
>                 g2 e4 a2 f4 g2. }
>              \lyrics <<
>                \lyricsto "duet" \new Lyrics {
>                  \set vocalName = "Bert"
>                  Hi, my name is Bert. }
>                \lyricsto "duet" \new Lyrics {
>                  \set vocalName = "Ernie"
>                  Ooooo, ch\'e -- ri, je t'aime. }
>              >>
>            >>
>          }

Stanza numbers can be added by setting `stanza`, e.g.

>          <<
>            \context Voice = duet {
>              \time 3/4 g2 e4 a2 f4 g2. }
>             \lyrics \lyricsto "duet" \new Lyrics {
>               \set stanza = "1. "
>               Hi, my name is Bert. }
>          >>

This example also demonstrates how names of the singers can be added using `vocalName` analogous to instrument annotations for staves. A short version may be entered as `vocNam`.

To make empty spaces in lyrics, use `\skip`.

##### See also

Program reference: Layout objects LyricText and VocalName. Music expressions LyricEvent.

##### Bugs

Input for lyrics introduces a syntactical ambiguity

         foo = bar

is interpreted as assigning a string identifier `\foo` such that it contains `"bar"`. However, it could also be interpreted as making or a music identifier `\foo` containing the syllable `bar'. The force the latter interpretation, use

         foo = \lyrics bar4

Read comments on this page, or add one. This page is for LilyPond-2.2.2 (stable-branch).