Scores with pickup measure have last bar wih wrong beat number.

"The last bar has always a duration 3 times that of the pickup measure."

It should be equal to the actual time signature less the value of the anacrusis, to give it it's technical name :)

Hehe - when I first started using FInale I searched for hours through the index looking for how to implement an anacrusis! After a lot of head scratching I stumbled upon the term pickup bar, which turned out to be what I was looking for :)

This is only true if there is a loop that links the first and last measure. An anacrusis can be present at the beginning if the music does not begin on the first beat.

I don't understand!

An anacrusis is present at the beginning because the music does not begin on the first beat.

I was taught, that in order for the piece to be balanced then the equivalent amount of time must be subtracted from the last note of the piece, and it is that way in every reputable theory book I have seen. Whether or not it loops is irrelevant.

fixed 075f8f966d

Actually, the convention of stealing beats from the last measure of a piece is hardly ever used any more in my experience except in music originally published at a time when it was more common. None of the music I am seeing first published in the last 50 years or so uses it. ANd as far as I know, neither FInale nor Sibelius steal time by default. If one wishes to use the older convention, one can certainly adjust the last measure manually, but I don't think the score wizard should do so automatically, unless it is an option (off by default).

In music, a single rule: "there are no rules", only the result counts.

The rules enacted by the great theorists apply to what has been written not for what will be written. Each musician creates the rules at the same time he wrote his work ... it is evolution, otherwise we would write yet in neums.

MuseScore should not "force" one way rather than another and a second automatic anacrusis is embarrassing for some. However, I accept the idea that it is configurable.

In general, I hate what automatic as I hate a way rather than another is imposed ... ;)

To better answer : a lot of popular French songs begin with an anacrusis uncomplemented end of music.

I think this discussion is very interesting and I would agree to revert the behavior to MuseScore 1.2 one but this is not the place. The bug is fixed. So please open a new issue if you see it as a problem It's better for readability.

The feature of having the last measure shorter automatically in the new score wizard has probably be implemented after a feature request, but I can't find it. If you can, please link it in the new issue.

I wasn't able to find any commentary on this matter apart from beginning music books (which oversimplify for our purposes) and Wikipedia which mentions that the last measure is "often" shortened: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anacrusis

A quick look through the recently published music I have shows a shortened last measure on small pieces (hymnals, collections of melodies, 1st year piano books, etc.). Obviously any multi-stanza hymn will require a shortened last measure, because the pickup measure literally completes the last measure when you go back to the beginning to sing the next stanza.

However, through-composed arrangements of hymns and folk songs with piano accompaniment don't seem to shorten the last measure (at least the ones I looked at). Almost all the other music I have was composed (or even published) more than 50 years ago, so this is not a thorough investigation.

Sorry, didn't mean to reopen. Lasconic and my comments must have overlapped.

Thank you

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.