Greetings from Iceland, A friend of mine here has been working on publishing the Þorlákstíðir* for some years now. He has rendered the chant notation using the Meinrad font within LibreOffice Writer. He would like to add a page of Gregorian notation with a parallel rendering in modern notation. I suggested the possibility of using LilyPond to do both. He then pointed out that the practice with text underlay in chant notation was to have the vowel rather than simply the initial letter of the syllable -- when a consonant -- beneath the first neume of the melisma. I have looked at a few images of chant notation and this appear to be the case.
In looking at Gregorian examples in the LilyPond documentation it seems that the first letter of the syllable is set beneath the first neume. Is there a way to change this? Is there a way to make LilyPond do this by default? Is this a job for Spontini? Thanks, David * [From Wikipedia, translated by Google Translate as the article is only in Icelandic]: The Þorlákstíðir are ancient liturgical prayers that were sung in Skálholt on the feast days of Saint Þorlákur until the Reformation. The texts are largely preserved, and they are in Latin. The musical score can also be read.
