I would need at least one Chorus lyric line more.

Dorico
#1

Very often the chorus of a song is a bit different with every verse, so that a single chorus line is not enough. Once again, Finale has the edge. There you can enter any number of verses, any number of refrains and any number of section texts, i.e. a third type of text.

Besides it should be possible to move text manually as desired, which is also possible in Finale and Musescore …

Please try for yourself to enter lyrics in the second line of the “Mel.” score, which is below the chorus, as sequel to the end of the first line. I’m not able to do this.

Thanks

#2

Do you really need to use Chorus at all? Why not just keep using Verse lyrics? The only benefit of chorus is: it sits in the middle of all the verse baselines, and you can use a different font.

You’ve got 3 verses, so the chorus baseline will be the same position as verse 2.

As for “Once again”: I’ll take Dorico’s handling of lyrics over Finale’s any day of the week! Try changing a lyrics from one number/type to a different number/type. In Dorico: select the lyrics and click in the Properties panel.

#3

I think this would be best solved by allowing fine-grain control over lyric text formatting on a syllable-by-syllable basis, as well as being able to vertically justify lyrics.

I do indeed miss the ability to format individual bits. But it’s yet another example of the very different philosophies of Dorico and Finale. I recently discovered an error in one of the hymnals I had published, in which I had shifted the vertical baselines of lyrics in different lines, and then changed the casting off. The final bar in a particular system had the lyrics shifted lower than the previous bars. UGH. Dorico doesn’t let that mistake happen…

#4

If you want a second chorus line, you could use a translation line for the chorus? That would have the same formatting by default. (Info about accessing different types of lyric lines in English here, and German here)

As for graphical moving of lyrics, in Engrave mode you should be able to move lyrics about - you can move individual syllables left/right however you like, plus use the specific alignment properties in the bottom panel, and move whole lyric lines up/down. Like other items, they have a default position/placement in Write mode that you can only change in Engrave mode or by changing the default settings.

#5

What I’d like is the ability to vertically shift the chorus. At present, it doesn’t shift.

#6

Could you be a bit more specific Dan? Chorus lines are indeed moveable vertically, and in fact the screenshot example given in the task linked in my previous post uses a chorus line. Are there specific circumstances in which the steps described don’t work?

#7

Egg on my face. Sorry Lillie, you’re quite right about vertical spacing of chorus lyrics. I was going from memory… Disregard that bit!

#8

Another approach if you want to have a separate chorus for every verse: input the lyrics using the regular first line of lyrics, then select them and activate the ‘Italic’ checkbox.