Plain chant
I have a new melody set to a traditional text, the Salve Regina. I wrote it in the plainchant style and know how I want it to sound (free) but I'm not sure how to notate it in a way that will guide another singer. Are there 'rules' around how to bar notes eighth notes, ex: based on the natural speaking emphasis?
Comments
There's a couple ways you can do this, depending on how you want your notation to appear:
1) stemless note heads. Say you have a melody of eight notes -- right click on your measure, select "measure properties," set the "actual duration" to 8/4, and check "stemless." Entering quarter notes will appear as stemless black noteheads, and if you want to you can add slurs to indicate phrasing.
2) groups of eighth-notes. For the same melody, set the "actual duration" to 8/8, enter the melody as eighth-notes, then use the Beam Properties palette to adjust the groupings.
Under the Barlines Palette, there are also quarter- and half- bars that you can use to create that real "Solesmes" look!