Bug: Crescendo with dynamic range "part" doesn't affect playback if tempo markings (also set to part) are on another staff

• Dec 25, 2017 - 20:27

I have a piano part with treble and bass staffs. The tempo markings are added to the bass staff (visually showing up in between the two staffs), but their "Dynamic range" is set to "part" so the playback (correctly) affects both staffs. However, when I add the crescendo line (𝆒) to the top staff of the piano part (because that line has more movement in it) and also set its "Dynamic range" to "part", the crescendo doesn't affect anything. Only if I add the crescendo line to the same staff as the tempo markings does it affect playback.

I can hack a fix by adding the crescendo line to the bass staff and using the arrows to move it visually up.

Please Fix: When checking for tempo markings, the crescendo symbol should check every staff affected by its own "Dynamic range" variable.

Comments

• Dec 25, 2017 - 22:46

If the "Tempo mark" is automatically being displayed over the bass staff, you are not using a tempo mark. Please attach the score so we can check it out.

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• Dec 26, 2017 - 19:05

This has been reported before - see #198116: Diminuendo not abiding preceding dynamic of different staff in part

But meanwhile, instead of attaching your dynamic to the wrong staff, then moving it manually to appear as if it were attached elsewhere, and then hoping MuseScore will find it anyhow, better to just attach the markings to the proper staff to begin with. In a normal piano score, dynamics should be attached to the top staff. They will then appear and behave correctly.

There are admittedly cases where it might seem easier to attach to the bottom staff, such as if the top has just a whole note and you want the dynamic to change mid-measure. But in such cases, note the whole note wasn't going to change dynamic anyhow :-)

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• Dec 26, 2017 - 19:49

For dynamics set to “part” it shouldn’t even be possible to attach them to the “wrong staff”. They should just attach to the part. If the dynamic range setting is changed to staff, it should then ask which staff. Given that they show up between staffs, and one millimeter up attaches them to treble, while one milimeter down attaches them to bass, the need to ensure they’re locked to the correct staff is just poor design.

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• Dec 26, 2017 - 19:54

In my case, the bass staff changes dynamics at the beginning of a measure (from p to mp), whereas the treble staff continues where it was (mp). Then they both crescendo together (from mp to mf). The bass staff has half notes and the treble staff has quarter notes. So the bass staff needs the tempo markings to override its previous tempo, but the crescendo makes more sense to visually show up closer to the treble staff, since it has the driving line, even though it affects both staffs (bass having half notes, not whole notes).

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• Dec 26, 2017 - 20:10

I don't know if you realize it, but you can change dynamics to affect only the staff they are attached to using the inspector. This might be what you are looking for. One thing to keep in mind, if you put a dynamic on the bass and change it to staff, you will need to then change the dynamic for the treble to affect only that staff as well. You can do the same with dim. and cres. including the lines.

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• Dec 26, 2017 - 20:48

Hi Mike, yup! I've been using the dynamic range inspector feature. I want the dynamics to be set to part, not staff. The bug is that even though my dynamics—including the crescendo—are set with the inspector to be for "part", the markings themselves are still forced to be "attached" to one or the other staff in the interface. If they get attached to different staffs (even though all are set to "part" in the inspector), the crescendo won't work. See the attached file to my other comment to see why it doesn't make sense for me to attach all dynamics markings to the same staff.

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• Dec 26, 2017 - 21:09

Sounds like you are attempting to move dynamics around by dragging. I agree it is poor design that this can change the logical staff, and I've argued for eliminating this "feature" before. But it's also not the best way to move dynamics in the first place. Instead you should be using the keyboard, which is more precise and less error prone. Basically, if you attach to the correct staff to begin with (select note in desired staff, double click dynamic in palette) and then only use the keyboard to move things around, you would not get into this situation.

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• Dec 26, 2017 - 20:43

Just threw together this file to show the issue I'm dealing with. In measure two, only the bass staff needs a dynamic change, so the dynamic marking is associated with the bass staff. In measure three, since both staffs have changed dynamics, I add the marking to the treble staff and position it in between staffs. The crescendo in measure two is connected to the treble staff both because that's standard practice and because it makes more sense given the quarter notes in the treble staff. Note that the crescendo does not get played in Musescore as is, but if I move the mp in measure 2 to the treble staff then the crescendo will play (for both staffs).

Attachment Size
Part-Wide Crescendo and Tempo demo.mscz 8.43 KB

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