Transposing an original: Need help with time signature and abnormal notation
Hi! I play the bass flute in my high school band, and I usually cover unused parts like second oboe, alto clarinet, or English horn. Since my flute is in C, I use MuseScore to transpose my parts. It has worked for me in the past, but now I need to transpose the English horne part for Lincolnshire Posy. The part has some really strange notations that I need help piecing together.
Time Signatures: there are some weird ones: 1/8, 1/4, and 2-and-a-half/4. Looking the movement over, (No.5 Lord Melboune) there doesn't appear to be a full measure of 1/8 or 1/4, but there are full measures with 2.5/4. Should I write that as 5/8 in the program?
Notation: In the same movement as above, there are irregular measures that say "10 beats" or "6 beats" which would be up to my conductor's cues, but how should I write that down? I was thinking about putting bar rests for the number of beats indicated (like a 10 measure rest for the part that calls for 10 beats) Any other ideas are greatly appreciated! :)
Lastly, I haven't messed with MuseScore2 long enough to know where most of the features are, how do I insert cue notes instead of written notes?
Thank you in advance for any help! :)
-M5150
Comments
First of all, by attaching your score, it will be really easier to help you.
1/8 and 1/4 should be no problem. For 2.5/4, notate it as 5/8, but in the time signature properties, you can set the "text" field to display it as 2/5.4
Not sure what you mean about "10 beats". Are you saying there is text that says that, and you are wondering hwo to create that text in MuseScore? Without seeing a sample, I'd say, use Staff Text (Ctrl+T) and then set the font etc however you like.
Cue notes are just notes that are smaller than usual, you can set notes (or the whole Chord, which affects stems etc as well as the actual noteheads) to Small in the Inspector window.
Grainger's Lincolnshire Posy definitely has some metrical 'challenges' in it ;o). IIRC, there is a section in the E. horn part for 'Lord Melbourne' which starts with a whole series of time signatures all in the same measure, with no notes between them. That is probably what you are talking about. There is also a text note stating something along the lines of 'Sections with [symbol] before them do not contain precise beat lengths; the conductor should beat for every note with a dash above it. Regular beats should be taken at barlines....' (That is not an exact quote; my memory isn't that good. Hang on; let me get my score out and look at it....)
To be perfectly honest, that is as close to gibberish as I remember seeing in a score, but this piece is one of the great compositions for concert band, so it's worth figuring out what Grainger wanted.
I also must admit that I do not have any idea how to create that notation using MuseScore. Any attempt to add a second time signature to the same measure results in replacing the one that was already in place. I hope that Marc or one of the other contributors here can help you do that.
I guess it can be done but why not just leave a big, blank bar and pencil it in after printing the score? Forget trying to get it to play back "properly", though.
In reply to I guess it can be done but by underquark
Nice job, underquark! I can now see more or less how you did that; I was thinking more in terms of using png images and trying to wash them through Photoshop to make the background transparent, but gave that up as impractical. Your workaround is better, and doesn't require a second program to make it work. It is also just possibly within the capabilities of a new user if he's given the step-by-step process. Do you feel like writing it out for the OP? ;o)
This is just one more argument in support of a 'scratch-pad' or 'graphics-only' mode for Musescore.
In reply to I guess it can be done but by underquark
I too say nice job, underquark. I also hope the OP will share his/her transposition for next bass flute player. And congrats to him/her on being in a high school ensemble performing this challenging and rewarding piece.
I didn't realize -- because the subject never came up for me -- that musescore doesn't allow entry of anything but numbers in the "Appearance" boxes of Time Signature Properties, so one can't input 2½/4 (or even A/A for a piece written in base 16), and one must use a work-around of some sort like you did. I wonder if this is a limitation of the program or a deliberate restriction to keep users from "going Grainger". If deliberate, I think I'd suggest that the developers remove this restriction.
BTW: I found this quote by Frederick Fennell in the liner notes of a CD featuring Lincolnshire Posy:
Perhaps it bothers the modern digital transcriber just as much. ;)
In reply to I too say nice job, by Rob Bruce
You know, I had two of those Edison recording machines when I was a kid; found them in my grandmother's attic and bullied Dad into bringing them home. We had a lot of fun playing with them--singing kid songs, making up goofy kid 'plays' and so forth--until we ran out of blank cylinders. It's staggering to think how dedicated to his project Grainger must have been to strap one of those things on his back and walk from town to town across the English countryside; the machine must have weighed 50 pounds not counting the cylinders!
I'm not a concert-band player, but I do admit that when I look at those four-in-a-row time signatures, I find myself wondering: “how the heck are you supposed to play that?” I have no idea what that notation means.
In reply to I'm not a concert-band by mrobinson
In this case, it just means that the following measures will be in one of those time signatures, not necessarily in any particular order.
Mostly due to the innovative/quirky scoring, it took over 30 years (and one Frederick Fennell) for this piece to really catch on in the band world.
OK, Da Capo...
Made the first four barlines invisible and the rests in those measures invisible.
Added breath marks and then moved them upwards.
Added the numbers and "beats" as texts.
Placed the time signatures in separate measures, each with 1/8 beat (not for playback or timing but just for space reasons), then moved them to the left using Inspector.
You cannot, as mentioned, put 2.5 or 2 1/2 in a time signature but you can put NOTHING on the top line which leaves the 4 on its own and you can then add the 2 1/2 as text.
Stuck enough beats the the "7" measure (or multi-bar rest or whatever the guy intended it be) and in the measure before and after it to create the desired rests.
Added in Rehearsal Marks and adjusted the frames to get circles or squares.
Found the funny circle symbol in the Z palette.