Add glyph to music font and define properties
I'm scoring out a piano concerto in which most of an entire movement is in 11/8 time. Whole-bar rests are easy to handle, because they default to a semibreve rest: all musicians and Musescore know how to interpret them. However, when it comes to e.g. the cellos sustaining a note over several bars, then I would like to have a "whole-bar note" denoted by some glyph or other, doesn't particularly matter which, as long as musicians and the software understand what it represents. In other words, the symbol represents eleven quavers, no more, no less, and in all other respects is handled by the software in the same way as any other note. My fall-back is to revert to scoring the entire concerto in Lilypond (which I used for an earlier clarinet concerto), but I'm hoping that Musescore can accommodate this without me having to create an entire font of my own! (Which I could do, but it's a fiddle.) Any thoughts? (... apart from "use something else"!)
Comments
A similar topic came up recently. Jojo will no doubt remember it and have a link.
In reply to A similar topic came up… by underquark
I indeed do remember a topic about a whole measure note, but don't have a link.
In reply to I indeed do remember a topic… by Jojo-Schmitz
Ah, found it.
https://musescore.org/en/node/331065
This argues about whether or not it is a real thing and how to score it (if it is), but doesn't cover making your own music font if the symbols don't already exist.
I would say, if you want the musicians to understand it's a note taking exactly eleventh eighths, there is no better alternative than using standard notation - dots, ties, and all. You could can certainly use tricks to get MuseScore to display it however you like, but for most musicians, best to stick to notation they already know.
That said, if they are musicians accustomed to experimental notations and there is a symbol you know that a composer they are familiar with has used before, then you can use this symbol in MuseScore. If it's a standard musician symbol with a different meant (e.g. the breve shape apparently used by at least one composer for this purpose), then I'd recommend entering a rest, positioning it as desired, making it invisible, and then adding the symbol from the Symbols palette. You could then enter the notes desired for playback also and make them invisible, or add to an invisible staff.
In reply to I would say, if you want the… by Marc Sabatella
Thanks, all, some useful ideas here. I'm not too fussed about Midi, since it all exists as such before I start scoring. (Just my method of working.) For the moment I've left it as minim-dotted crotchet-minim tied as that fits all requirements. I was just curious to know what options existed. Thanks again.