Modifying solfege

• Sep 23, 2020 - 17:11

This is a two part question, but both parts revolve around modifying the moveable do solfege-notehead function on Musescore, so I am lumping them together. The commonality between the two parts is a desire to occasionally modify the displayed solfege syllables.
Scenario 1: Pedagog John Armstrong suggests it is useful to have choir plan out ways to modify the solfege syllables when approaching a key change so as to make the key change easier and more seamless for the singers; effectively looking at the voice leading in the measure or two leading up to the key change and saying "ok, if we switched to the syllables of the upcoming key at this point, it would make for a logical flow." Obviously this couldn't be done automatically by an algorithm as it would take some judgement calls by the musician.
Scenario 2: This is a bit more far fetched pedagogically but might be easier from a programming point of view. I will put an explanation for "why" I'm making this change below, but after being inspired by Dr. Carol Krueger some local colleagues and I are changing the second scale degree from re to ra. This is not standard and obviously means that the (wonderfully convenient!) solfege notehead function on Musescore now has a syllable wrong for my choir (two if you include the flat note).

Thinking this over I see three possible solutions plus my short term solution, but I am open to other options I haven't thought of.
Solution 1: can there be a way to manually change the text in the noteheads without changing the formatting? This would allow a teacher to both edit solfege syllables approaching key changes and also allow my non-standard swapping of re and ra.
Solution 2: can there be a function that keeps the noteheads as standard heads and instead automatically inputs the solfege as lyrics below (that could then be edited)
Solution 3: While it wouldn't help the key change issue, is it possible to create a new plugin that would basically be identical to the current moveable do notehead feature only reverse re and ra?

I'm reasonably computer literate but most certainly not a programmer, hence why I'm asking for advice. In the short term I'm just going to use the notehead function as it is currently written and input key change modifications as lyrics below.

*(For those who are interested in why a few of us are reversing re and ra on the suggestion of Dr. Carol Krueger. The advantage and power of moveable do solfege is that, much like takadimi in rhythm, it is a pedagogical system that is based on the function of the note instead of being based on the visual representation of the note. In takadimi, every down beat is represented by T consonant, and the divisions of the beat that are part of the downbeat all end in the "ah" vowel. The system is based upon beat function. In moveable do solfege, the relationship between each scale degree is the same regardless of what key you are in, and by utilizing la based minor, sol based mixolydian etc you can easily train a choir to sing in any key or tonality. Though solfege was invented almost arbitrarily, it serendipitously comes very close to matching the functionality of takadimi: the closely related I and V chords both end in the "o" vowel, all sharp notes and scalar half-steps end in the "i" vowel, all flat notes end in "e".... except re and ra. If you swap them, all the flats become "e," and the closely related ii IV vi chords all are based on "a." A major scale becomes do ra mi fa so la ti do, and has fantastic internal logic. Hence the change.)


Comments

I re-did this question in a more concise post in the "feature request" forum. If a moderator would like to delete this post that would be fine. Thank you.

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