With the advent of Cantai (haven’t yet bought it) I’m inspired to try a song - in the ‘classical’ sense of the term 
.
Setting to music, say, C19th Romantic sonnets; or Hardy; or Marlowe, Keats, some of my own poetry even!
I can’t immediately see a source for best practice except for this in the manual… enter all text first; line-by-line; stanza by stanza; each word as the melody (almost certainly piano g/staff etc)?
Anyone have any pointers to best practice, in Dorico Pro 6, please?
TIA…
When I’m composing new vocal or choral music. I read the first line of the lyrics and write the musical phrase for that line making sure that I am “singing” it in my head and marking slurs as I go along. Once the notation is there, I select the first note of the phrase and use SHIFT-L to add lyrics. Then the second line and so forth. That’s how my brain works. I’m sure others have their preferred methods.
When I hear motifs in my head that I want in the music, I put those in a keyboard staff approximately where I want them and come back after finishing entering the vocal/choral parts to play around with, and complete, the accompaniment.
I don’t think Dorico will allow one to enter lyrics until the notation in place. Best of luck and let us know how it goes!
Kent - that’s really helpful. I hoped you might see this and answer. Exactly the kind of thing I wanted to know. Much appreciated!
My pleasure. I tend to do things the way my brain works which can be a little different. I always recommend that folks find what works for them and tweak it until it is second nature.
That makes perfect sense. In your case, Kent, definitely prima la Musica.
Not having composed this way before, I fear I might well have been tempted to try and enter an entire wadge of text somewhere into Dorico; and then ‘set’ it. Which, of course, would militate against any kind of instrumental accompaniment. Now I have a better way to start - thanks again!
What I do:
First I read and analyze the lyrics, especially the ‘music’ aspect of the lyrics.
What is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables, in each stanza?
Usually there is a repeated pattern.
Is the first syllable stressed or unstressed?
Then there is the rhyming.
Where are the rhymes?
Usually there is a repeated ‘rhyme pattern’.
Next, I consider the consequences the ‘music’ aspect of the lyrics may (or may not) have in the music, like e. g. that you can “hear” the {rhyme structure} in the music.
Something else to consider is the time needed for breathing.
Singers (too) need to breathe once in a while …
I didn’t really delve into the details of how I write the notation (aka music) so thank you for sharing this. It is essentially my process in a nutshell. Nicely stated!
Thanks too, Peter.
Any rules of thumb (or really of lung) on gaps for breathing, please?
For what it’s worth, I typically allow an eighth or quarter rest for breathing in most situations but that depends on the tempo. My validation testing for that is to actually sing it myself at the stated tempo. If I can sing the entire phrase and then breathe quickly enough to start the next phrase on time, it will work for 99% of singers.
Depends: do you like the singer?
Jesper
Generally singers prefer to breathe after a rhyme.
Somehow it feels ‘right’ to breathe after a rhyme, perhaps to make the rhyme stand out.
If you want to be nice to the singer, give the singer {breathing time} after a rhyme.
Thanks, @kasky1 and @PeterThomsen, those rules make sense.
Talking of rhymes…
… when the text is of clearly-discernible line lengths (albeit sometimes of different lengths) is it good practice to start a new System in Dorico at each line ending?
Not necessarily. I just let Dorico space the music as always.
Some songs configured for the recording studio recommend specific system lengths.
Thanks, Derrek; as I say, it’s been a long time since I experimented…
(How) will Dorico know about - or (how) should I (?) indicate - text line breaks?
Dorico spaces the music without worrying where the rhymes fall or the verses (verses, not stanzas) change.
Thanks, Derrek; shall experiment .
Hey Mark, just to throw a monkey wrench in this, there are, on occasion, times when it “looks” better (maybe only to the publisher) to break the system at the end of the lyric phrase. I’m thinking of hymn settings where there are pickup beats in each line and the bar is split at the end of every line to keep the verse phrases (strophes?) together.
In other words, there are always exceptions and considerations! 
Indeed, as someone who grew up in church music, I should have thought of hymns as well as studio work. 
Perhaps the best advice we can give @MarkSealey is to find a few (free) examples on line of the kind of choral/vocal music he is contemplating and take a look at how the publisher lays them out.
Noted with gratitude, Derrick and Jim!