Lyrics first, Music after

Dorico
1

I’ve been given some free-style text. Can I type it in and then divide the time up afterwards with notes.
This must be how the great composers of old worked by knowing what religious text they had to set to music i.e. Lyric first, music after?

2

You can gather the text elsewhere and copy-paste it into the music, but the ideal workflow is designed to be music first, then notes.

There’s a difference between the “gathering information” stage and the composition stage.

1 Like
3

I have occasionally composed that way – on paper.

In Dorico lyrics are attached to beat positions, which are in one timeline from the start of the flow. So in order to get lyrics to move with changing note values, you’d have to use insert mode. I find this works:

  • (In open meter) enter a row of equal notes, the same as the number of syllables
  • Add the lyrics, properly hyphenated, to those notes
  • Repitch with lock to duration to create the melody
  • With insert mode on, finally change the rhythms

But it seems very awkward to me. It’s so much easier to enter the right notes and then put the lyrics on them. If you just want to have the lyrics on the score while you compose, you could paste them into temporary staff text.

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4

Thanks Dan for your reply.

5

Thanks Mark. I think I can try a modified version of this for my unpitched narrator.