LyChoRhyce

The LyChoRhyce program reads LCR-formatted song text files and generates beatiful HTML files, ready to be printed or converted into PDF files.

The LCR format

LCR (Lyrics, Chords and Rhythm) is a textual format for describing songs in a simpler way than sheet music. You write text like this:

Scarborough Fair

Authors = Simon & Garfunkel
Meter = 3/4
Key = Em

---

Verse 1 =
| Em~ Are ` ` you | going ` ` to | D~ Scar- ` \ bo- ` rough | Em~ Fair? ` ` |
| G~ ` Par- ` sley, | Em~ sage, ` ` rose- | G~ ma- ` A~ ry ` and | Em~ thyme ` ` |
| ` ` Re- | mem- ` ` ber | G~ me ` ` to | one ` who ` lives | D~ there ` ` |
| Em~ she ` ` once | D~ was ` ` a | true ` love ` of | Em~ mine ` ` |

and it gets converted to this:

The output is similar to popular CRD song sheets, and the source text and operations are similar to the ChordPro format. The main added value is the rhythmic information: it shows measure boundaries (the black vertical lines) and beat boundaries (the grey lines).

Then again, the rhythmic information is optional. We could have only measures but not beats:

or no rhythm information at all, and we are back to CRD and ChordPro:

The Time in Music Notation article has a fuller comparison of the main music notations.

Other features

The format also has the following features:

• arbitrary fields in the song header
• song sections (verse, chorus etc.) with title and description
• multiple songs in one file
• optional column layout
• page layout in PDF and print

Copyright

The LyChoRhyce program is copyright (c) 2021 Nicola 'teknico' Larosa. Licensed under GPLv3 only, see the LICENSE.md file for details.

The LCR format documentation by Nicola 'teknico' Larosa is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.