MS, > Putting aside the impossibility of the attached exercise, you'll see that the > lyrics stay shifted way down for the part of the attached example that moves > to D major.
I ran into the reverse problem with pedal markings the other day: they were *not* aligned (and in fact seemed to behave like you want lyrics to. I can testify that the misalignments that resulted until I put the pedal markings into their own context was *seriously* disruptive visually. And that was for something relatively minor. If lyrics jumped around, I would personally find it rather disruptive as a singer, especially since vertical alignment sometimes is not just a matter of aesthetics but also of semantics, as when an alternative bass lyric is written below a primary lyric. So if the signers see lines jumping about, how will they know what the correct interpretation is? Of course, as others have pointed out, you can probably resolve your situation by using ottava marks to keep things more neatly in the staff. I agree that the gap below the staff is very difficult to deal with and understand your motivation, but I think the solution would be to find a way to eliminate the cause of the gap, if possible. (That said, although I don't have the solution, I am 100% in favor of leaving the system flexible enough to allow people to do what they want. You never know in advance when something you consider out of the question will not only be possible but may even be the best solution in a context you never thought of.) Best, Arle _______________________________________________ lilypond-user mailing list lilypond-user@gnu.org https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user