16th century notation
Hello,
This request was made to include new templates and symbols such as used on 16th century. We know that Emmentaler font include these symbols, and, to give a "old-fashioned and charming style" to our scores, even the ones that are from this time [Palestrina, Victoria, da Viadana...]
Merry Christmas and a Happy New-Year!!
Comments
Which symbols do you need?
The currently released version (1.2) as well as the next one include mensural 'time' signatures and the 'correct' shape for brevis. In 1.2 they are mere symbols to be manually placed, in ver. 2.0 under development time signatures can be customized to show mensural symbols.
Neither version include coloration notes, some can be faked and some cannot (a coloration minim can be rendered with a crochet note head, but a coloration brevis, semibrevis or crochet cannot be rendered, at the moment).
If you refer to 'squared' note heads used in pre-XVIII c. music (and occasionally even in the XVIII c.) or to ligaturae, they are not implemented; nor will they, I think, as there is really little reason to use them in modern editions; ligaturae in particular are not so easy to implement (or to use!) and the ratio effort / gain would be quite low!
Anyway, if you have specific needs or interests in early music, do not hesitate to discuss them.
Thanks,
M.
In reply to Which exactly? by Miwarre
I need clefs [the most important], diamond headnotes, and respective rests and flags, accidentals and the ritornello bar.
Do not worry about ligaturae, they are so difficult to write and understand!!
PS: Is there some manner to use the French time signature style, such 3 to 3/4? And the sesquialtera [¢3/2]?
Thank you and have a good holiday.
In reply to I need clefs [the most by Israel1992
I would distinguish two parts:
A) Signs which merely have a different, but clearly related, shape and are used more or less as they are today: I would include in this part, the clefs, diamond note heads, the flags and the accidentals (notably the sharp, the natural being rarely used and the flat being practically of the same shape as today).
These signs are not implemented, nor will they, I believe. In principle, it would be possible (for sure with the next ver. 2.0, perhaps even with the current ver. 1.2 and some ingenuity) to add a new font which uses these shapes and use this font instead of the built-in Emmental / Gonville fonts; this has not been tried nor tested, so any weird side effect is possible.
This, however, would only be cosmetic and, then, I believe, of rather low priority.
B) Signs which do not exist any longer and/or have a different usage: mensural 'time' signatures are a good example. Under ver. 1.2, I usually do this:
1) Create a 'regular' time signature as needed; for instance in the case you quote"¢3/2", it would probably be 6/2;
2) Drag the time signature 'out of the way' (for instance just above the staff) and set it invisible;
3) Using the symbol palette ('Z'), drag the required symbols where the time signature originally was (there are all the mensural symbols, including 'dotted C', 'dotted O' and 'cut O');
4) if you need more room (as "¢3/2" is wider than a regular time signature), add some leading space to the first note.
It is a lot of work and require precise positioning (use a large zoom), but it usually works out nicely.
Under 2.0, some can be obtained easily; for instance, "3" for "3/4" (or more commonly for "3/2"):
1) create the full time signature ("3/4", "3/2", whatever)
2) right click on it and choose "Time signature properties"
3) delete the denominator text (the "4" or the "2") and press OK
4) select the remaining "3" and, with the Inspector, move it one space below to centre it properly
If you need a compound 'time' signature like "¢3/2", the simpler way is to create one part as a regular time signature (possibly customized) and add the other part as a symbol manually, as described above. It still requires some manual work, but with Inspector, precise positioning of manually added symbols is much quicker.
In this site , you may find several early music scores of mine, some for 1.2 and some for 2.0, using these kinds of 'tricks' (note: ver. 2.0 evolved a lot while I was working on these scores, so they may exhibit any kind of artifacts when open with the current revision of 2.0; you should be able to analyze them, though; also, score for ver. 2.0 CANNOT be open with ver 1.2!).
(I have given up with the 4-dotted/double-barred ritornello: cute, but too much work for just a 'frill'...)
Good work and let us know of your progresses, if you like!!
M.
In reply to I would distinguish two by Miwarre
I know a font, created by Steve Horn for Sibelius, which is made for ancient music and tablature. Is the "Le Roy" font.
So, if we contact him, could we use their symbols? [Maybe we would get him to help our project, lol]. His font has very high quality and is complete.
More info: http://www.sibeliusblog.com/tutorials/leroy-early-music-fonts-for-sibel…
Another option is use the Lilypond ancient symbols and "create" a new font, with these symbols only.
Thanks and good day.
In reply to I know a font, created by by Israel1992
Having the font (or symbols) is only part of the process. The other part (and perhaps the most tricky) is to make sure the font (or symbol collection) is usable by MuseScore and that MuseScore actually has the infrastructure to use multiple fonts.
I have to admit that my motivation is limited in engaging in such a process to arrive at scores which are more or less as difficult to read as the scores I spend hours and days to transcribe... (but of course, anyone is entitled to his preferences, priorities and goals! )
Thanks,
M.
In reply to Having the font (or symbols) by Miwarre
I must confess, that, while the production of historically accurate scores is of great benefit from an academic point of view, my own preference is to transcribe them into modern notation so that today's musicians will find it easier to engage with the music of the past.
In reply to I must confess, that, while by ChurchOrganist
I agree, during my study as professional recorder player I found it usefull to see what the old faxcimile looks like. Playing from this old sheet music was something completely different (and difficult)
What I would like in musescore is the possibility of an early music setting where you can choose for "alla breve" or 3/2 signature and no barlines. they didn't use them in the early renaissance and earlier. Modern sheet music with no barlines can help to get the horizontal feeling of the poliphonic music of that time. They did not think in signatures like us but in pulse.
I would use this possibilty of no barlines in musescore , when I transpose music from a facsimile to musescore for my baroque ensemble and my recorder students.
In reply to No barlines for an early music score by Debberg
This is a common request, and i guess there is a new feature coming in 2.0 that will help somewhat. Meanwhile, though, you can set your barlines to be invisible. You can also set up your score with just one barline per system, and use Measure Properties to tell MuseScore how many beats you want in each measure. That gives you exactly the effect you want, although you do have to do the work of figuring out how many beats you do actually want in each measure.
In reply to No barlines for an early music score by Debberg
'Time' signatures: almost any time signature is possible both with the current ver. 1.2 and with the next ver. 2.0. Some require some tricks which are described in a post above.
Bar-less score
Total absence of bar lines is already possible: simply select all the bar lines (using right-click and "select more...") and make them invisible!
Of course this does NOT solve two aspects:
1) The bar lines still take some horizontal space. No way around this in ver. 1.2, I think; but in ver. 2.0 it is possible to change the space from the last measure note to the bar line and from the bar line to the first measure note; setting both to 0, make the bar line '0-thin'.
2) Notes tied across a bar line will remain two tied notes. For ver. 2.0 I have, since a loooong time, posted a patch which combines two notes across a bar line into a single note value (if possible, of course); the change is only visual and can be turned on and off with a single check box in the score style dlg box.
There has been some interest initially, but nothing happened in the end. I am not over-pushing this patch, as it appeals to a niche of users, but if you are interested, you may drop a short post at this feature request thread and at this post , to show your support.
Please note that the current ver. 2.0 nighlty already supports mensurstriche, i.e. bar lines between staves rather than across them.
Thanks,
M.