musixlyr -- a MusiXTeX Extension Package for Lyrics Handling Version 2.0c (C) Rainer Dunker 1996-2001 musixlyr is a set of TeX macros to be used with Taupin MusiXTeX (version T.52 or later) for typesetting vocal music. Its purpose is to compensate two drawbacks of MusiXTeX's lyrics handling: o Typesetting lyrics with the ``native'' MusiXTeX commands \zcharnote, \zsong etc. tends to be quite inefficient, particularly if the lyrics have to be changed or corrected. The idea underlying musixlyr is to separate lyrics coding from music coding and let TeX weave them together with as little manual interference as possible. As a result you can enter and edit lyrics (nearly) as easily as normal text. o MusiXTeX has no built-in mechanism for centering hyphens between syllables and for handling hyphenation at long melismas. This is implemented in musixlyr following the example of engraved music. New in version 2.0: o Support for lyrics on multi-staff instruments o Melisma declaration as part of the lyrics definition, i.e. within \setlyrics o Improved scheme for vertical lyrics positioning o Using PMX: Automatic detection of upper/lower voice context in a two-voice staff; explicitly addressing lyrics commands to auxiliary lyrics with \auxlyr is no longer required o Context-dependent lyrics settings that do not need to be adressed to absolute instrument/staff numbers, making lyrics assignment robust against PMX part extraction o No more TeX register allocations per verse (i.e. musixlyr uses only a small, fixed number of registers) o Facility for posting "extra" lyrics anywhere on a staff, even where no notes are present at all o Slightly more robust processing of undefined verses See the included file mxlyrdoc.dvi about how to make use of musixlyr. This DVI file has been created using MusiXTeX T.103. If you have another version installed, the music examples of the manual may be corrupted due to font incompatibilities. Nevertheless, the rest of the manual will remain readable so that you will be able to install musixlyr and recompile the mxlyrdoc.tex file in order to get everything right. All kinds of comments, suggestions, and bug reports are welcome! Author: Rainer Dunker Wachtelweg 31 85591 Vaterstetten Germany E-mail: rainer.dunker@web.de