Fancier control of repeats on playback?

• Mar 23, 2023 - 16:18

I'm re-transcribing a piece for my church choir, mostly for readability; the original uses small italic font for the lyrics that makes it hard to read.

The roadmap is a bit complex, mostly (I suspect to save paper). There's an intro (no issue there), an A section (with three verses), an A' section (one verse), and a coda. There are repeat signs around the A section, a D.S. al Coda at the end of the A', and repeats around the A. But if you follow the instructions, the real order is A, A', A, A with "4th verse to Coda" in the middle. MuseScore 4 does't understand that, of course, and swaps the A' and second A.

I could unroll the first A, A', of course (cut and paste, and that might make it easier for singers to follow). But more paper. (And should anyone care, measure numbers wouldn't match the original.)

This is probably a pretty esoteric request, and maybe there's something hidden I'm missing, but some kind of annotation saying "Do this repeat on only the 2nd and 3rd time you get here" might be useful.


Comments

You wrote:
There are repeat signs around the A section, a D.S. al Coda at the end of the A', and repeats around the A.

For clarity, since A and A' are different, let's substitute B for A'.
So... your statement re-written:
There are repeat signs around the A section, a D.S. al Coda at the end of the B, and repeats around the A.

Okay then, what is the difference between repeat signs around the A section and repeats around the A?

Anyway, substituting B for A', explain precisely what order you want.
Mention Intro, A, B, D.S., Coda in your desired roadmap.

In reply to by Jm6stringer

Clearly I didn't explain well. Let's try again. Basically, the original has four verses (different words) that are virtually the same tune, but: Verse 1 is "normal," verse 2 has a different accompaniment, verse 3 is the same as verse 1, verse 4 starts like verse 1 but cuts in the middle to a coda.

The original score has a "reverse repeat" at the start of the verses. At the end of 1 and 3 there's a repeat with parentheses around it (odd, that) but with a notation saying verse 1 skips the repeat and goes on to verse 2 which follows. At the end of verse 2 is a D S al Coda with the S back at the start of the verses (so verse 2 goes back to 3). Then in the middle of the verse1,3,4 section there's a note "4th verse to Coda."

Confused? So am I. So are singers. And all of this is sufficiently nonstandard, I suspect, that it's no surprise that MuseScore playback gets confused.

This is pretty much moot, though. I ended up unwinding things and have something that's much easier to read and fits in the same number of pages. The only repeat is a volta at the end instead of a coda.

And I did run across a note in the forum that implies there's a way to say which visits to a repeat should actually be taken. I'd already made my changes, but that might have been the feature I was looking for if that actually works. Maybe for another day.

In reply to by urbanian

Verse 2, because of a different accompaniment, doesn't allow for a simple repeat structure.
You wrote:
I ended up unwinding things and have something that's much easier to read and fits in the same number of pages. The only repeat is a volta at the end instead of a coda.

Glad you got it sorted.
Anyhow, here's a version using a coda:
Using_coda.mscz

In reply to by Jm6stringer

That would be another option, and is a bit closer to the roadmap of the original.

Since the difference between verses 3 and 4 is just a smallish bit at the end, I put verses 3 and four with voltas (a coda would have worked, too) keeping the common part together and the endings separate. The "looping" ended up on facing pages, so no flipping back and forth.

I'm really quite the novice at all this, but I'm quite enjoying fiddling with things.

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