Hyphens and extenders - GNU LilyPond
Description: GNU LilyPond

Next: The Lyrics context, Previous: Entering lyrics, Up: Vocal music

#### 7.3.3 Hyphens and extenders

Centered hyphens are entered as ``--`' between syllables. The hyphen will have variable length depending on the space between the syllables and it will be centered between the syllables.

When a lyric is sung over many notes (this is called a melisma), this is indicated with a horizontal line centered between a syllable and the next one. Such a line is called an extender line, and it is entered as ``__`'.

In tighly engraved music, hyphens can be removed. Whether this happens can be controlled with the `minimum-distance` (minimum distance between two syllables) and the `minimum-length` (threshold below which hyphens are removed).

##### See also

Program reference: LyricHyphen, LyricExtender.

This page is for LilyPond-2.8.8 (stable-branch).

Other languages: English.
Using automatic language selection.