Although I entered a lyric extension line correctly, it did not appear in the score, which led me to waste a considerable amount of time trying to work out why.
I eventually discovered that Dorico does not automatically include lyric extension lines in its horizontal spacing calculations, meaning that the user must manually add a system frame in order for the extension line to become visible.
This behaviour is unintuitive, and I would like to request that Dorico automatically allocate the necessary horizontal space whenever a lyric extension line is present.
As an accompanist for many years, the first example (without the extensions) is more representative of what I’ve seen than the 2nd example. I don’t know what Behind Bars says but my observation of music over the years suggests that there won’t be an extension added if the word has enough characters to fit under both notes of a melisma. Your use of slurs over two words is a bit unusual for choral/vocal music (like the start of measure 72).
How about these examples from Benjamin Britten’s arrangement of Greensleeves? I found them through an online search, and I’m not sure who the publisher is — the only information I can see is the copyright notice:
Copyright 2001 by The Britten Estate, Ltd.
All rights reserve
Not a bug. It’s a feature in Dorico that if there is not sufficient room (i.e. if the word extension is superfluous) it won’t be displayed. I believe there is a setting that controls this, and it works in conjunction with note spacing. This is why, when you add system breaks, the extensions appear — you made enough room for them to be necessary.
The point is that you want lyrics to affect the note spacing as little as possible.
In the Britten examples, there is sufficient room in the note spacing to accommodate the syllable and an extension line.
But it is entirely standard for one syllable to sit over two notes, if there isn’t room.
The alternative would be for Dorico to massively increase the spacing across the whole system, in order to provide the space for the extension. That’s less satisfactory, for all kinds of reasons.
Also: I agree that your slurs make little sense. They’re just matching the length of the beat, not the words.
