Hiding duplicate lyrics when condensing SSAATTBB to SATB

Dorico
1

I can’t be the first person to have encountered this, but I don’t see this exact issue in previous forum posts.

I need 8 choral parts (SSAATTBB) condensed to a 4 part octavo. When condensing, Dorico puts the S1 lyrics above the part and the S2 below. So the score looks horribly cluttered with 8 lines of lyrics jammed into it. In many places the lyrics (and often the dynamics) are redundant because the rhythmic structure of the two parts is identical. So I thought the “duplicate” or identical lyrics (and dynamics) could be hidden and only appear when needed because of rhythmic variance.

Best I can tell lyrics can not be selected as text objects and hidden in properties. But I can scale them to 1 effectively hiding them locally so they appear unharmed in the SSAATTBB full score layout. Is that my best solution, or am I missing something obvious? Is there a better solution?

I’m not really a beginning Dorico user now, but I still feel like a slightly fragile one at times. : )

Screenshot 2026-06-22 at 11.31.57 AM
Screenshot 2026-06-22 at 11.31.57 AM1920×1548 444 KB

2

Condensing vocal lines with lyrics is still problematic.

3

At least in this example, all your lyrics are simultaneous, so one could place the lyrics below the second part(s) and avoid the duplicate lyrics.

4

That’s what I’ve started doing. I just wanted to check in with more experienced users to make sure I’m not overlooking a better solution or completely unaware of a Lyrics Layout Settings panel hidden deep in the bowels of Dorico.

5

I hope that at some point Dorico will handle these multiple lyrics to everyone’s satisfaction. But until then, we have ways to make it work.