Section breaks, long instrument names, and new time / key signatures.
If I want to show the long instrument names again at a system other than the first, the conventional wisdom seems to be to use a section break. As long as I remember to edit the section break properties to not reset the measure count, this works well even when it's not really the start of a new movement, just a place where some previously hidden staffs are visible again, and need to show which instruments they are.
But when the key signature or time signature changes in the first measure of the next system, the change should be shown at the end of the last measure of the previous measure. And if I use a section break there, that courtesy signature disappears.
I understand I maybe should make a feature request to either add buttons to the section break properties to show courtesy key signature/ time signature, or add a 'show instrument long name' in the properties for system break, but in the absence of this feature, does anyone know of a workaround?
I suppose I could fake it by adding lines and staff texts to imitate the courtesy signature, or adding an empty measure before the section break and exluding it from the measure count, but both these ways are quite messy.
To explain why I want this, see the attached excerpt from the song I'm working on. I'm doing an A5 booklet of choir music, so space is limited. When the song starts with just S and A singing, I don't want a full system with empty staffs for T and B, and I don't want to use short names at all. So when T and B start singing at measure 8, I want their long names (that are just the letters anyway) to show up so everyone knows which staff to read. But since measure 7 was 2/4, and measure 8 is 4/4, I want that to show up at the end of measure 7, as it does in measure 11.
| Attachment | Size |
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| Ubi Caritas-Gjeilo-JS-1811-formaterad-EXCERPT-01.mscz | 30.98 KB |
Comments
"But when the key signature or time signature changes in the first measure of the next system, the change should be shown at the end of the last measure of the previous measure. And if I use a section break there, that courtesy signature disappears."
Sorry, but my experience is that a section break (for example between movement) does absolutely not show a courtesy key signature change at the end of the previous movement. That would seem very odd to me.
Any other views from anyone - for or against?
In reply to "But when the key signature… by DanielR
Yes, unless there is an attacca between movements, which is what I'd like to bring up.
I put two movements of a sonata in one file, so that I could do an attacca (continuing without stopping) from one movement to another. There is a meter change at the beginning of the latter movement that I would like to signify at the end of the former, whilst at the same time being able to display the long instrument names and resetting the measure numbers at the beginning of the latter movement.
If I use a section break, I:
+ can display the long instrument names again
+ can reset the measure numbers
- cannot display the new time signature at the end of the former mvt.
- cannot display the new key signature (not that I have one to begin with).
If I use a system break, I:
+ can display the new meter (and key) at the end of the former mvt.
- cannot display the long instrument names again (at least, IDK how)
- cannot reset the measure numbers, but I think I know a workaround for that.
What are some options?
I just copied what you did line by line, into a new score. Hid the beginning tenor and bass. I know this doesn't answer most of your questions. But I think it it easy to read. If space is a problem, you can make staves smaller. You might be overthinking system and section breaks.
Thank you for your replies!
DanielR - My point is exactly that I'm NOT using the section break to signify the end of a movement - in fact the section break in my example happens in the middle of a word! I suppose the problem is that using the section break in order to make the long instrument names appear is itself a workaround, and not the intended use of the section break.
bobjp - Thank you for the effort. Maybe I should have said that I didn't just need help with this particular score, but with this functionality in general. I have had similar problems with other songs. Your solution of course sidesteps the problem entirely, which might be a good solution for some songs but not others. As far as staff size goes, I have been tweaking many parameters in the style sheets for many songs for the book that just barely fit, but of course I want to stay within a fairly small range of size differences so the scores have a unified look across the book. At any rate changing the staff size doesn't help with courtesy time signatures!
For posterity, attached is an example of the workaround I came up with. At the end of the first system, there's an automatic courtesy time signature referring to measure 5, as expected. At the end of the second system, the section break gets rid of any courtesy time signature. Instead, I added an extra measure there, excluded it from the measure count (in measure properties), and gave it the time signature that I wanted to show (in this case 4/4). After going to Style settings > Measure, and decreasing the minimum measure width, I could then select the end bar line and decrease its Leading space from Appearance in Properties. I suppose I could also have just used measure stretch. Lastly I hid the bar line and the rest inside the measure.
It's quite a messy workaround, but it seems it's the best I've got!