Two key signatures **on the same staff**
Hello everyone,
I'm transcribing a number of organ scores to accompany the office of Vespers sung according to the Liber Usualis (so, in the Gregorian chant books published in the early 20th century), so that they're easier to use and to read (the books were published in the 20s and 30s).
Mostly, it's gone well. For one chant, however, the original organist who composed the accompaniment gave the organist the choice between two key signatures. Is it possible to replicate this, or do I have to repeat the music? (This would be very complicated, as there are several variations of the same text used on over a dozen different occasions, and having one melodies in two keys would be too heavy on the page.) This is apparently also somewhat common in hymns, and Finale can fake it. (See https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360015660253-2-d…)
I've attached a screenshot of the score in question.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Screen Shot 2022-08-29 at 23.09.29.png | 469.13 KB |
Comments
Why not just add some kind of text near the key signature, "May be played in the key of D flat, if desired."
In reply to Why not just add some kind… by Timborino
Because there's already too much text all over the score, and unless I can avoid it, absolutely none of the notes should be related to anything musical whatsoever. They should be a reminder for the organist of what tone is for what hour and what occasion, given that the organist ideally can accompany from the Gregorian staff without modern notation (lest all of the music wind up infelicitously in C-major) and with just pencil markings, but this is far, far, far from being the reality, so a written accompaniment will have to do.
Plus, it seems just…easier… to have the key signature on the line even if it looks strange to most of us (and it's not particularly common even in this book
If it's not possible in Musescore, fine, but that's a limitation in the reproduction of historical music, alas.
In reply to Because there's already too… by luntastonemason
You could use the image capture tool (the camera icon on the toolbar) to create an SVG with transparent background, that you could then insert manually. I think you can position it with the inspector then save that to a custom palette.
You could create a Custom Key Signature. Laborious and (as you can see from the attached score) you need to do it separately for the Treble and Bass clefs as it is only a set of graphics and does not behave like a real Key Signature.
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/key-signatures#custom-key-signatures
You can also add the fake key signature manually using individual symbols from the Symbol palette (press "Z" to display).
In reply to You can also add the fake… by Marc Sabatella
I wonder what a player would do if they encounter an accidental. As with most efforts to save paper, they seem more likely to cause confusion.
In reply to I wonder what a player would… by SteveBlower
I would hope this is only done on a piece of music that is diatonic.
In reply to I wonder what a player would… by SteveBlower
Well, there aren’t any accidentals — the score in question is even attached — and yes, indeed, it’s “normal” music written with our modern scales to accompany the chant.
And I don’t know about this being more likely to cause confusion. I already explained why repeating the score in another key would be confusing (not to mention a waste of space, and it’ll take up more space than the original as it is).
The attached link, by the way, shows a way to handle accidentals that seems straightforward even for me; I’m more technically-oriented and not even a particularly good musician, which is why I’m doing this project.
I need to play with the spacing in each measure, such that I have to enter and renter the existing measures (even by copy and paste, so it's not too tedious) and it's very imperfect, but I'm glad that I have a solution that works, one that also led me to using the Symbols palette.