Roman Numeral Analysis: adding a second line (ie, for modulations)

• Mar 12, 2021 - 12:54

Hi! I am not sure if I am missing something, but when adding a Roman Numeral Analysis I can't add a second line of analysis (like the Lyrics or Figured Bass functions), which is often needed to the analysis of modulations.

If I'm not missing something, please consider adding this to improve MuseScore in teaching contexts.

Comments

• Mar 12, 2021 - 17:17

A better to handle this would be nice indeed. I'd like to add the bracket you sometimes see used as well, that would need to be implemented within the font.

But meanwhile, it's not that hard to get the second set of symbols at least. Just hit Esc to get back to normal mode, then re-select the chord or test and add a new RNA symbol. Autoplace will take of moving it out of the way, but it won't necessarily align perfectly with others, so instead I would recommend applying a manual offset or using a custom text style.

Here's an example where I did just that:

https://musescore.com/marcsabatella/baroque-fugue-harmonic-language

Reply

• Mar 14, 2021 - 20:28

Thanks Mark, that did the trick!

Still, it feels sort of unfinished when compared to the Figured Bass and Lyric features, which are really top notch. Another minor grip is that default text in Roman Numeral Analysis is too small, though not everyone will agree on that and it it's easy to change the size from the Inspector.

Also, does anyone else agrees that diminished symbols looks great in Roman Numeral Analysis but not in Chord symbols, where they feel like a regular "o" instead of a "degree" symbol ?

Reply

• Mar 14, 2021 - 22:39

The chord symbol and figured bass symbol can do more because the formatting is implemented in the code within MuseScore. The RNA feature on the other hand just uses plain text - all the formatting magic is done by the font, Campania. This is very nice in some ways, as it means you can also use this facility within ordinary text - text frames, even other programs like Word or LibreOffice - just by setting the font to Campania. But it does come with some limitations, because the kind of formatting a font can do all by itself itself is not as powerful as what a program can be coded to do.

Still, there are certainly enhancements that can be made, and adding support for multiple lines is one of them. I note, though, that this support does not exist for chord symbols or figured bass either. Or at least, no way other than the same way that i just described for RNA. So they are really pretty equal in this respect. Figured bass of course supports multiple lines within a single symbol where necessary, but so does RNA (eg, I64, and RNA does it without requiring you to hit Enter.

Regarding the size, not only can you change it in the Inspector, you can also set it as your style so all RNA elements in the score get this, and you can save your style for use in other scores or save the result as a template.

As for the diminished symbol, it was deliberate that it uses the letter "o" in the standard style = that's because not all fonts can be relied upon to have a reasonable diminished symbol, and also because it's actually pretty common in published music to see the simple "o". Except in the jazz world, and since we provide that font ourselves, we made sure to include and use that symbol in the jazz style.

Reply

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.