4-part writing: How to remove extraneous rests
Hi, everyone. I'm learning Musescore, which is the most amazing app I've ever used.
I'm now trying to learn 4-part voice writing. I'm entering one of Bach's harmonized chorales. Please see the attached screenshot.
Each of the voices you see are 1, 2, 3, and 4. However, for some reason (most likely something I did?) I now have rests all over the place, and I don't know how to delete them or what I did to cause them to be there in the first place.
In the first 4 measures, I selected each one manually, then set to invisible. However, this is obviously not the right way to do this.
I've read other QA on this forum about this issue, but I still don't understand (1) why they are there, and (2) how to get rid of them.
I will appreciate any and all help so I can avoid this problem in the future.
Thanks!
David
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Comments
Better is to attache the score. Above, read carefully the handbook chapter about voices: https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/voices. Better use for the bass clef staff also voice 1 and voice 2 (you can't delete rests of voice 1). If you want to change it in your actual score and you don't want to enter it again, see the section about exchanging voices.
In reply to Better is to attache the… by kuwitt
Hi, kuwitt. Thanks for your fast reply. I've attached the .mscz file. Could you (or others) please take a look at it?
Thanks very much!
In reply to Hi, kuwitt. Thanks for your… by dcollett
As supposed: You've notated the notes in the bass clef with voices two and three. There's no need for it, because in the single measures you don't need more than two voices.
But it's easy two correct: Select the first measure of the bass cleff staff, press shift and select the last measure of the bass clef staff. Select in the menu tools->voices and exchange for example voice 3 with voice 1. Right click on a rest of the exchanged voice 3->select->more..., tick "same voice", "ok", and press "del"..
In reply to Hi, kuwitt. Thanks for your… by dcollett
Exactly as explained above - you need to start with voice 1 of each staff. You've started with voice 3 for the second staff. You get four voices per staff, not four voices total, but each staff needs to start with voice 1. See the referenced article for more information.
You can see all the Bach 4-part chorales in MuseScore posted here (by Gertim Alberda): https://www.bach-chorales.info/ .
In reply to You can see all the Bach 4… by [DELETED] 1831606
Thank you all for your fast help. I redid the chorale as you said, Voices 1 & 2 for the treble clef; Voices 1 & 2 for the bass clef. Worked great. Now I just need practice 😺
The link to the chorales above is great because I can better understand how to do 4-part writing myself. Thanks!
David