Lyrics

Enter lyrics from the Write activity. Lyric entry moves through notes syllable by syllable, while the lyric controls in Palettes → Text manage verses, translations, labels, languages, and their display order.

Start lyric entry

Select the note or chord where the first syllable belongs.
Open Palettes → Text, then find Lyrics below the text tools.
Choose the lyric line you want to enter.
Select Start entry.

You can also select a note and use the Lyrics toolbar button or press Shift+W. Both commands open the Text palette and its Lyrics controls, then start entry for the active line. If the selection is not a note or chord, Viritura asks you to select one instead of changing the document.

Lyric entry and note input are separate interaction states. Starting lyric entry exits note input; pressing N to start note input exits lyric entry.

Enter syllables

Type into the field below the selected note, then use these keys:

Key	Action
`Space`	Commit a complete syllable and advance to the next note
`-`	Commit a syllable that continues on the next note
`_`	Advance across a note for a melisma
`Shift+Space`	Insert a literal space in the current lyric text
`Left` / `Right`	Move between notes when the text caret is at that edge
`Up` / `Down`	Move through lyric lines in their configured order
`Enter`	Move to the next lyric line
`Escape`	Commit pending text and stop lyric entry

The field loads existing text when you revisit a note and lyric line. The label below it identifies the active line.

Edit an existing syllable

Click engraved lyric text to select that syllable. Open Properties to edit its text, its position within a word, or the lyric line it belongs to. A line that already has a syllable on the same note is unavailable as a destination, so reassignment cannot silently overwrite text.

Press Delete or Backspace while a lyric syllable is selected to remove only the lyric. Its note remains unchanged.

Standard clipboard commands follow the selection:

Copying or cutting a selected syllable uses plain text. Cutting removes only the lyric, and pasting plain text replaces the selected syllable.
Copying notes or passages includes their attached lyrics. Viritura fragments also carry the referenced line labels, languages, and ordering so they remain available when pasted into another document.

Paste and distribute a verse

Select a contiguous passage in one voice, then choose Paste verse in the Lyrics controls. Enter or paste the complete text and review the token-to-event preview before applying it.

Spaces end words.
Hyphens divide authored syllables and are never rewritten. Pasted ASCII, Unicode, non-breaking, and soft hyphens are recognized.
Each underscore skips one selected event for a melisma, tie continuation, or intentional gap.
Rests, tie continuations, existing lyrics, mixed-voice selections, and token count mismatches appear in the preview. Errors must be resolved before the operation can be applied.
Enable Replace existing lyrics only when the previewed line should overwrite text already attached to the selected events.

When the active line has a language, Suggest syllables offers conservative language-aware boundaries for unhyphenated words. Generated boundaries are marked as suggestions and require explicit confirmation. Authored hyphens and underscores always take precedence.

Applying the preview is one document edit, so undo, redo, history, and live collaboration treat the whole distribution atomically. The document also keeps the verbatim source text and stable token identities under _x.viritura.lyricWorkflow; later reflow never has to reverse-engineer or rewrite the original paste.

Reflow and repair

Select the destination passage and choose Reflow to preview the active line's most recent distributed source against a new range. Reflow preserves stable token identities and commits as one edit.

Lyrics remain attached to their rhythmic event during duration changes and same-voice insertion. Structural changes never silently move a syllable to a different voice:

Rhythm edit	Lyric behavior
Insert an event	Existing event anchors remain unchanged. Use Reflow to include the insertion.
Delete an event	The source token becomes orphaned and remains available for repair.
Revoice or move an event	The lyric follows its event, but Viritura flags the changed voice for confirmation.
Split or join events	Existing event IDs remain authoritative; tokens whose anchor disappears are flagged as orphaned.
Change duration	The lyric remains on the same stable event ID.
Replace a passage	Missing and conflicting anchors are listed separately from engraving.

The repair panel offers explicit choices:

Follow events accepts revoiced anchors and restores stored token text where an anchored lyric conflicts.
Reflow remaps the retained source forward over the current selection.
Detach for review removes token anchors without discarding the retained source or visible text.
Delete affected removes the affected distributed source and its matching lyric text.

Manage lyric lines

The Lyrics controls in the Text palette list every lyric line used by the document.

Select a line card to make it active for entry.
Select Add line to create another verse or translation.
Use the arrow buttons to set the order shown below the staff and followed by Up and Down during entry.
Set a Label such as Verse 1, Chorus, or Translation. The entry field shows this label.
Set Language to a valid BCP 47 language tag such as en, en-GB, fr, or a valid private-use tag. Viritura preserves valid authored tags rather than silently rewriting them.

Line metadata, ordering, and entered syllables are normal document edits. They round-trip through MNX and participate in undo and redo.

Imported lyrics

MusicXML import creates lyric lines from numbered <lyric> elements. When the source consistently provides a lyric name or language, Viritura retains that information as the line label and language.

For general selection, palettes, and editing commands, see Notation & Editing. For entering notes, see Note Entry.