Actual measure duration different from the notation

• Sep 3, 2012 - 18:00

Dotted rhythms get clipped, causing a situation where a measure that looks like 3/4 and has a dotted eighth note has an "actual duration" of 11/16 (3/4 - 1/16 = 11/16), or a 4/4 measure with a dotted quarter note to have an actual duration of 7/8 (4/4 - 1/8 = 7/8).

I have been downloading some hymns in XML format from www.hymnary.org. I reformat them using MuseScore for members of my church who can't read the small print in the hymnal. Mostly, it works well, but sometimes the files have dotted rhythms that look right in the original file, but, when played with MuseScores Play-back function, clip half a beat off the dotted rhythm. When I look at the "Measure Properties" for the measures that contain these dotted rhythms, I find that the "Actual Duration" is less than that of the time signature and less than that indicated by the notes in the measure.

If I correct the "actual duration", I find that MuseScore adds a rest. This means that the notation will now have a longer duration than the "Actual Duration" indicated in the Measure Properties window.

I have tried to insert a new measure, rewrite the notation and then delete the old measure, but it seems very difficult to create a new measure adjacent to the old measure that doesn't recreate the characteristics of the old measure. But when have succeeded in creating a measure that has the correct Actual Duration and the correct notation, and then try to delete the bad measure, it causes all sorts of other problems, like having two measures superimposed one on top of the other.

The hymn Rock of Ages is a prime example of this. If you are interested in checking it out, I have attached the mscz file that I downloaded from Hymnary.org.

Has anyone run into this problem? At the moment, I have given up and find it easier to simply transcribe hymns with dotted rhythms and not use the Hymnary.org XML files. It is quicker. But I don't understand why a measure that looks like it has the full 3 (or 4) beats can have an "Actual Duration" that is less.

Attachment Size
Rock of ages with clipped dotted rhythms.mscz 5.26 KB

Comments

• Sep 3, 2012 - 20:41

Here is the link to the file: http://www.hymnary.org/media/fetch/97462
and this is the web page on which that link resides: http://www.hymnary.org/text/rock_of_ages_cleft_for_me_let_me_hide

I should point out that there are a LOT of these Hymnary.org files that present the same dotted rhythm problem. I just selected Rock of Ages because it's familiar to many people and because there are a lot of instances of the dotted rhythm problem in it.

I am not so sure about the idea that the glitch happened during file transfer. Someone apparently tried to fix a measure in the middle. There are some 'invisible' rests in one of the measures. That measure (maybe measure 5?) has the correct Actual Duration for a 3/4 measure, but, with the invisible rests, it is actually showing more than 3 beats in the measure. There is also a mysterious invisible half note measure at the beginning of the following measure. The fact that someone has clearly tried to do something about the problem seems to indicate that the problem arose during the original creation of the file so, it is probably not a MuseScore bug. The problem specific to MuseScore is that there doesn't seem to be any easy way to correct the problem.

Thanks for looking into it. If you have any insights you can share, I would be really interested in hearing them. It seems to me that there are two issues: 1, where is the glitch entering the file and, 2, why is it possible for MuseScore to have a measure that has an actual duration different from what the notes in the measure present?

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