Measured arpeggio, how to notate it?
So, I have made some decent progress with my bagatelle, but there is something that I know I want but am not sure how to notate in Musescore(or even if it is possible). That is a measured arpeggio. Let me make things clearer. What I am wanting is something like this:
Except that instead of the 32nd note distance in the arpeggios shown above(which are from the Presto Agitato of the Moonlight Sonata), I am wanting an eighth note distance and I am wanting all the notes of the arpeggio tied to a half note. Also, as far as notes and how many of these arpeggios, I want 2 arpeggios, the first of which goes Bb, D, F, Ab, and the second of which goes Eb, G, Bb, Eb. If I want to lengthen the arpeggio to 3 bars, that's easy. I just go into note entry mode, make sure the half notes tied to the measured arpeggio are selected and then press the plus key and I will have lengthened the arpeggio.
The hard part is getting the measured arpeggio in the first place. A measured arpeggio is easy when you don't want to sustain the notes of the arpeggio across the entire arpeggio. It is hard when you do want to sustain the notes of the arpeggio across the entire arpeggio as I do in my bagatelle. As you can see from the Presto Agitato arpeggios above, there are 2 beams per note, 1 beam for the arpeggio in its entirety and another beam for the individual notes. Best way I know to get that is by having the first and second voice in unison and then making all the second voice notes silent.
But, I'm not sure that I can do that, because there are 4 voices in total in the Musescore software. Won't putting all the eighth notes in the first voice and then tying one of them to a half note cause the other eighth notes to disappear? So that would mean that I would have to use 4 voices for the eighth notes. Then how am I going to get my 4 eighth note beam? My bagatelle is at the bottom of the page and the arpeggios would start at measure 119.
How can I notate this sustained, measured arpeggio in Musescore(This would also help if I ever finish arranging the Moonlight Sonata for string quartet)? I have only seen such precise arpeggiation notation for sustained arpeggios in the Presto Agitato of the Moonlight Sonata, thus me using it as an example of measured arpeggios. Most sustained arpeggios that I see are notated as an arpeggiated chord, but I am wanting more precision than that with this bagatelle, thus me asking how to notate a sustained, measured arpeggio in Musescore.
Attachment | Size |
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Bagatelle in Eb Major.mscz | 52.5 KB |
Comments
I think you truly need 5 voices here. I have no idea how to do this. Perhaps Marc has seen it.
In reply to I think you truly need 5… by [DELETED] 1831606
4 voices for the individual notes and another one for the beam, yeah, that makes sense. And yeah, I have no idea how to do it either.
When I've see arpeggios like this notated in the past, all of the various length notes in your picture with the stem pointed up were missing, so you only had the 32nd notes tied to the longer note or only the longer notes with no 32nd notes. Both of these would be understood the same way as far as how to play the notes. My personal preference would be to omit the 32nd notes because the longer notes are clearer in their meaning.
In reply to When I've see arpeggios like… by mike320
Will not playback properly, though. The number of voices should be the number of fingers (polydactylic felines don't play keyboards).
In reply to Will not playback properly,… by [DELETED] 1831606
What's wrong with this playback?
In reply to What's wrong with this… by mike320
Sorry, no, that's exactly right indeed. I was prematurely commenting on the first of the 2 proposals in the previous message.
In reply to Sorry, no, that's exactly… by [DELETED] 1831606
This has the first proposal in the second measure and the playback is fine.
Where the first proposal was previously, I have shown the basis of a quite complicated method to notate what is in the picture. I only notated the first arpeggio. For the second, you would place the 32nd notes in voice 2 of the top staff and use cross staff notation to move them down in a manner similar to what I did for the first arpeggio.
If I decided to enter this sample score into MuseScore, I would probably resort to the methods with the cross staff notation, but would never use this in original music.
In reply to This has the first proposal… by mike320
I'm not seeing a second measure in the above posting.
In reply to I'm not seeing a second… by [DELETED] 1831606
added. I'm not feeling well tonight.
In reply to added. I'm not feeling well… by mike320
It does play properly, and looks as it sounds in the Piano Roll Editor, but I have no idea why, or what rule it is following.
In reply to It does play properly, and… by [DELETED] 1831606
All the notes have typical piano off-times of 950 and say in the status line that they are 32's, so, no pun intended, "beats me".
In reply to All the notes have typical… by [DELETED] 1831606
I believe there is a special case when there is a tie that is from one note to another that isn't directly next for this specific purpose (apreggios). The two I suggested first are fairly common notations and the case was apparently accounted for.
In reply to I believe there is a special… by mike320
Good heaven! Will the wonders of science never cease? I guess this is under control, then!
In reply to I believe there is a special… by mike320
I don't know if this is the method that you used for the arpeggios that were all in the first voice, but this is what I did:
1) Wrote the eighth note arpeggio as normal
2) Wrote the chord the arpeggio is tied to as normal
3) Went note by note and pressed the plus key to add the ties
And I had no issues with notes disappearing when I added the ties.
In reply to I don't know if this is the… by Caters
I actually clicked the first note, shift+clicked the last note and pressed + to apply all of the ties at once.
Ties always go to the next note of the same pitch regardless of voice or how many beats, measures, systems... away it might be.