Lyric placement

This is condensed SATB - but the bass (which in my case here is Down-stem Voice 1) is singing a melisma.
Screenshot 2021-04-14 at 16.25.21
I can only show that on the lyric line if I attach the lyric to that voice - as you can see in the screengrab (the continuing underline following the slur) - but I do not want any lyrics here - I want a single line of lyrics in the middle of the Grand staff.

Does anyone know a workaround I can use to correct this?

Figure the slur will tell the basses what they need to know and don’t worry about the extension line. Singers are not totally clueless.

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With respect, that’s not the point. This is sometimes absolutely necessary (especially for certain publishers) and is not very easy to achieve at the moment.

What is it that’s wanted? An extension line on the middle text, or something else?

Yes that’s exactly it. An extension to the underline, but in the middle of the Grand staff - not at the bottom

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I was wondering if it might be possible as a workaround to create a new hidden voice (if I can hide notes successfully) on the treble staff and attach the text to that… (?), but without hiding the text.

For the time being I’m just going to have to leave it, but it is a bit of an issue.

@pianoleo had a solution for me a few months ago, but a cursory search yielded nothing and I’m too lazy to keep looking! I remember it worked well though.

It requires a bit of fiddling after the fact, but if you edit the music in the voice to which the lyric belongs in the upper staff such that it has the same rhythm as the bass part, you can edit the lyric and make it show the desired extender line, then return the voice to its original state, and the extender line will remain on the lyric. The down-side of this approach is that the extender line won’t end in the right spot after you return the voice back to its original state, but you can fix that in Engrave mode.

We have talked in the past about having an option to use all voices of an instrument to provide the navigation for lyric input, so that you could go to the next note in any voice, but that would only help in situations where you’re using e.g. the “choir reduction” instrument, rather than in a genuinely condensed situation.

When it comes to Dorico’s handling of lyrics in condensed music, we certainly have plans to smarten it up in this area, but it’s not a trivial matter and it’s sadly not yet been something we’ve been able to return to. There is no shortage of things for us to work on…

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Are you planning on using the uncondensed staves anywhere? If not, you could cut and paste the none with extender line from the bass staff to the tenor staff, then use Shift-Alt-Left to shrink it by the grid (you probably need to shrink it by a quarter/crotchet).

The beginning of the note will likely then need adjustment in Engrave mode, but the end shouldn’t.

Split the duration of the note that the lyrics is atatched to. Then create the underline.
Then join the note.
Screenshot 1
Screenshot 2

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