>> * In the first pass, typeset everything without stuff marked for a >> follow-up pass. > > Namely, typeset all notes?
Yes. > But how do you take into account the constraints from lyrics here? > That is the whole problem. They should be completely ignored. My idea was to make the first pass collect 'springs and rods constraints' so that note columns can't be stretched too much by lyrics in the second pass. Note that with a 'pass' I don't mean that LilyPond completely typesets everything. It's rather restricted to repeatedly solving the horizontal spacing problem. Werner