mpdolce - LilyPond

Chapter 4: Tweaking output 89
You will notice that font-series and font-size are also listed there. This immediately
raises the question: Why are the common font properties font-series and font-size listed
under LyricText as well as under the interface font-interface but font-shape is not? The
answer is that font-series and font-size are changed from their global default values when
a LyricText object is created, but font-shape is not. The entries in LyricText then tell you
the values for those two properties which apply to LyricText. Other objects which support
font-interface will set these properties differently when they are created.
Let’s see if we can now construct the \override command to change the lyrics to italics.
The object is LyricText, the property is font-shape and the value is italic. As before, we’ll
omit the context.
As an aside, although it is an important one, note that because the values of font-shape
are symbols they must be introduced with a single apostrophe, '. That is why apostrophes are
needed before thickness in the earlier example and font-shape. These are both symbols too.
Symbols are then read internally by LilyPond. Some of them are the names of properties, like
thickness or font-shape, others are used as values that can be given to properties, like italic.
Note the distinction from arbitrary text strings, which would appear as "a text string"; for
more details about symbols and strings, see Appendix B [Scheme tutorial], page 173.
Ok, so the \override command we need to print the lyrics in italics should be
\override LyricText #'font-shape = #'italic
and this should be placed just in front of and close to the lyrics which it should affect, like this:
{
}
\time 6/8
{
r4 b8 b[( g]) g |
g[( e]) e d[( f]) a |
a g
}
\addlyrics {
\override LyricText #'font-shape = #'italic
The man who feels love's sweet e -- mo -- tion
}
� �
� �
8 � � �
�
� 6
�
� � �
� � � � �
The man who feels love's sweet e
and the lyrics are all printed in italics.
Specifying the context in lyric mode
�
�
motion
In the case of lyrics, if you try specifying the context in the format given earlier the command
will fail. A syllable entered in lyricmode is terminated by either a space, a newline or a digit.
All other characters are included as part of the syllable. For this reason a space or newline
must appear before the terminating } to prevent it being included as part of the final syllable.
Similarly, spaces must be inserted before and after the period or dot, ‘.’, separating the context
name from the object name, as otherwise the two names are run together and the interpreter
cannot recognize them. So the command should be:
\override Lyrics . LyricText #'font-shape = #'italic