Using MusicXML (2)

• Dec 22, 2019 - 17:03

Further to post (1) : https://musescore.org/en/node/298759

I am making progress based on feedback to my previous post and I have tabbed a simple score in 2 voices. This time I have not mixed up my voices and the MusicXML export/import was a lot better.

Original .mscx file:
FJ01.PNG

File after exporting to MusicXML and the opening in MS3:
FJ02.PNG

So the music has been preserved faithfully but the title and sub-title have moved. Is there anything I can do about this or is it outside of the spec of MusicXML? I know it's pretty trivial but there would usually be more texts in my scores so this is a simplified example.

Frere Jacques.mscz

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• Dec 22, 2019 - 17:07

Currently we don't preserve much formatting info because it varies so much from application to application. Think of MusicXML as being more about preserving content than appearance.

That said, the default Subtitle style should have centered for you, and it worked for me when I loaded your score, exported, then imported. Were you using 3.3.4?

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• Dec 22, 2019 - 18:13

Just in passing. Your score would be even better with a different choice of voices. You started with voice1, you had to do it with voice2. Now you see that the rhythm is much more defined in measures 7 and 8 for example.
I also added a linked standard staff. Not to bore you. But to help understanding (to visualize) of what I described above.
1Frere Jacques.mscz

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• Dec 22, 2019 - 21:45

I used voice 1 for the first round and voice 2 for the second round. This gave me rhythms above the stave for voice 1 which seemed to makes sense to me. But overall the rhythm is just as easy to read in TAB whichever way round the voices are.

I found the linked notation staff harder to follow for the rhythm because you can't determine it by looking at the stems alone, whereas you can with the TAB. This is the case whenever there is a minim. In the TAB a shorter stem shows it's a minim but in the notation this note has a crotchet stem: you also have to read the unfilled notehead to get the rhythm. (With a ledger line thru the minim I have to swap to reading glasses to see that it's not a crotchet).
stems.png

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• Dec 23, 2019 - 06:11

Well, the choice and organization of voices, however, is not a matter of chance or personal convenience. Basically, for 4 voices, think/visualize a vocal ensemble (SATB: Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass), each with its own pitch range.
The way you've noted it in your score - image below - in two voices, it is as if you were asking a bass, or tenor (male voice) to sing the soprano or alto (female voice) part, and vice versa - if you can visualize :)

voices.jpg

For the record, many instrumental pieces (for guitar or lute, in the Renaissance period) are precisely the result of transcriptions into tablatures of vocal pieces. This is exactly the same principle, the basic idea.

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