10.2.1 Creating titles

Titles are created for each \score block, as well as for the full input file (or \book block).

The contents of the titles are taken from the \header blocks. The header block for a book supports the following

dedication

The dedicatee of the music, centered at the top of the first page.

title

The title of the music, centered just below the dedication.

subtitle

Subtitle, centered below the title.

subsubtitle

Subsubtitle, centered below the subtitle.

poet

Name of the poet, flush-left below the subtitle.

composer

Name of the composer, flush-right below the subtitle.

meter

Meter string, flush-left below the poet.

opus

Name of the opus, flush-right below the composer.

arranger

Name of the arranger, flush-right below the opus.

instrument

Name of the instrument, centered below the arranger. Also centered at the top of pages (other than the first page).

piece

Name of the piece, flush-left below the instrument.

breakbefore

This forces the title to start on a new page (set to ##t or ##f).

copyright

Copyright notice, centered at the bottom of the first page. To insert the copyright symbol, see Text encoding.

tagline

Centered at the bottom of the last page.

Here is a demonstration of the fields available. Note that you may use any Text markup commands in the header.

\paper {
  line-width = 9.0\cm
  paper-height = 10.0\cm
}

\book {
  \header {
    dedication = "dedicated to me"
    title = \markup \center-align { "Title first line" "Title second line,
longer" }
    subtitle = "the subtitle,"
    subsubtitle = #(string-append "subsubtitle LilyPond version "
(lilypond-version))
    poet = "Poet"
    composer =  \markup \center-align { "composer" \small "(1847-1973)" }
    texttranslator = "Text Translator"
    meter = \markup { \teeny "m" \tiny "e" \normalsize "t" \large "e" \huge
"r" }
    arranger = \markup { \fontsize #8.5 "a" \fontsize #2.5 "r" \fontsize
#-2.5 "r" \fontsize #-5.3 "a" \fontsize #7.5 "nger" }
    instrument = \markup \bold \italic "instrument"
    piece = "Piece"
  }

  \score {
    { c'1 }
    \header {
      piece = "piece1"
      opus = "opus1"
    }
  }
  \markup {
      and now...
  }
  \score {
    { c'1 }
    \header {
      piece = "piece2"
      opus = "opus2"
    }
  }
}

As demonstrated before, you can use multiple \header blocks. When same fields appear in different blocks, the latter is used. Here is a short example.

\header {
  composer = "Composer"
}
\header {
  piece = "Piece"
}
\score {
  \new Staff { c'4 }
  \header {
    piece = "New piece"  % overwrite previous one
  }
}

If you define the \header inside the \score block, then normally only the piece and opus headers will be printed. Note that the music expression must come before the \header.

\score {
  { c'4 }
  \header {
    title = "title"  % not printed
    piece = "piece"
    opus = "opus"
  }
}

You may change this behavior (and print all the headers when defining \header inside \score) by using

\paper{
  printallheaders=##t
}

The default footer is empty, except for the first page, where the copyright field from \header is inserted, and the last page, where tagline from \header is added. The default tagline is “Music engraving by LilyPond (version)”.¹

Headers may be completely removed by setting them to false.

\header {
  tagline = ##f
  composer = ##f
}