Thin square brackets for voice groups?

• May 9, 2013 - 06:40

Hi,

I am scoring four songs for SSATB choir. Generally, in vocal scores, staffs that belong to one voice group are indicated by a thin square bracket before the winged square bracket that groups all staffs. In the attached example you see a ATTB-score in which the two tenor-staffs are spanned by such a thin bracket in each system. In my case, I would need to group the two soprano-staffs.

example thin square bracket.jpeg

I have checked many scores that were published to Musecore.com, but have not seen anyone doing this in the conventional way. Instead, some have used the accolade-bracket for this purpose, but I find this too distracting (and too baroque). Normally, in vocal score, the accolade is reserved for a piano-part (if present) for rehearsing purposes.
I tried adding a second thick winged bracket to span just the two soprano parts (Musescore allows for this), but this looks ugly.

My question would be: is there a way in Musescore to attach this type of thin square brackets to each system, as shown in the picture? I have searched through these fora and handbook, but cannot find an answer. This may be due to lack of vocabulary, I might be searching for the wrong words (I'm Dutch) - in that case: my apologies.

Let me end by saying how absolutely delighted I am with the quality of Musescore. I'm new to the program, but found it very easy to start with and very complete (well, almost ;-)). I have had a great time re-scoring 4 Madrigals by Martinu to accommodate the original Czech lyrics (they are presently only available in an old german version).

Thanks!

Attachment Size
example thin square bracket.jpeg 345.39 KB

Comments

In reply to by chen lung

Hi,

Thanks for your answer! I guess it would be feature request, now that the answer to my question seems to be that this is not something Musescore presently can do (I wasn't sure of that - hence the question at the support forum).

Thanks also for the links to LilyPond. They are indeed what I am looking for. However, I had never heard of LilyPond, it looks beautiful, but rather more complicated than Musescore - and certainly a lot of extra work now that I'm almost done with the four scores in Musescore.
More on a conceptual level, and a first sight, I fail to see why LilyPond would steer away from a WYSIWYG approach!

Best regards,
Thies

Some of us have been asking for this kind of bracket, which is also used for hand indications in piano music, barre signs in guitar music, and keyboard indications in organ music for a while.

As a work around it is possible to use the bracket from the arpeggio palette instead and drag it into the position you need.

HTH
Michael

In reply to by ChurchOrganist

Thank you! I had considered using the arpeggio bracket instead, but it's a little tedious to get that right at each of the 120 systems. Also, that arpeggio bracket is linked to a particular note rather then to the staff, so each time something moves, all these brackets would move as well.

So I think I will leave it out for now, and hope for Musescore to include the feature at some point.

Thanks again, and best regards,
Thies

In reply to by ChurchOrganist

Thank you! However, reading your issue description and the other issues your mention there as well, I'm not sure whether the rotating local line-issue you describe there would be a logical solution for the type of brackets I described here.

The bracket that indicates groups of voices (in my example) should be repeated at each system, it occurs throughout the score (contrary to the local indicators for keyboard-switches, etc). In essence, it is nothing else than the already present accolade bracket, with the same behavior, but with a different look. The links to LilyPond earlier in the topic illustrate this 'nesting' - although my request is a mild version of what they are showing.

If I understand your solution well, using a rotated line with hooks would still imply placing that at each individual system - and that would be rather time-consuming.

Best regards,
Thies

In reply to by chen lung

Thank you, can't wait ;-)

There was a little unclarity earlier in the thread whether ChurchOrganist and I were referring to the same issue, but from what I now read in the programming code in file 'libmscore/mscore.h', I conclude that Lasconic indeed has added a third system bracket to the bracket menu, so I'm happy!

Thanks all!

Best regards,
Thies

Whilst waiting for a permanent solution, you can cheat by using a square-bracket glissando but beware that it may move if you later change the score layout. Still need to add them to each line, though.

Attachment Size
Bracket_Cheat.mscz 1.89 KB

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