Disappearance of several orchestral parts namely the trumpet
Throughout my writing of my first complete waltz in my first jazz suite, "Aurora", I did not notice any abnormalities and thus without checking had gone to bed. Upon the time where I woke up did I realize that the entire solo trumpet part disappeared, leaving virtually empty staves except for one single orchestra strike, which was the only time where the trumpet played. Could this be a possible error in the software, or a negligent mistake by pressing the wrong keys on my computer?
I also have other information to provide; the trumpet was not marked "soloist", rather assuming its own position in the brass band in customized orchestral ordering; the only thing denoting it as such was text which I had placed above the staff which pertains to the trumpet.
Furthermore, I tried reverting to backup variants and they all had the same issue; the Bb trumpet part was gone, and being a jazz suite the trumpet is a leading instrument with equal trisection of melody between it, the woods, and saxophones. This issue is quite distressing considering that my creativity at the moment is running low and as such I cannot rewrite the trumpet part up to standard; and furthermore there is also risk that some other vital parts of the orchestra will be deleted without my knowledge.
Could someone help me understand the nature of the problem? Any assistance is greatly appreciated.
Comments
Did you leave your computer on with a score open all night?
Sorry to hear you are are having problems! But it's not clear what you mean here. Are you saying you had a score with notes in the trumpet part up on your computer, and then later, you returned to that computer with the file still open but the notes were gone? Mostly likely explanation in that case would be a cat or other animal walking across your keyboard and hitting the Delete key, or perhaps the keyboard having developed a mechanical failure that causes the key to press itself.
If on the other hand you mean, you closed the score, then later reopened it but found it not the same as you saved it, then there are two explanations: 1) you forgot to save it, so you're still seeing the last saved version, or 2) you opened a different copy of the file (like maybe in a different folder) from the one you saved.
Without knowing more about what you actually mean here, it's hard to advise further. So please explain in more detail what you actual did in terms of when you saved the file, what folder you saved it to, etc, how you reopened the file, etc.
In reply to Sorry to hear you are are… by Marc Sabatella
I must apologize for the lack of detail; the scenario which happened was closest to Option One, in which though I did save the file and shut down the computer properly, the notes on the now-empty trumpet staff were entirely missing. Both proposed answers have some merit, as I did find it far different from when I last had saved it, being that before saving and closing it still had notes for the part; but being a lead instrument I almost always write for it first during solos and tutti sections before writing the passages for other instruments, and as such it would not have refused to save.
I should also mention that there was a slight possibility that I had deleted or replaced the staff; as originally in the first version I scored the piece with the general instrument "Trumpet" as opposed for "Bb trumpets 1" and "Bb trumpets 2", and subsequnetly deleted the original trumpet part and added instead two empty staves. Once again, this theory is a speculative one in nature, as I do not explicitly know the instrumentation of the first version of the score.
Upon this, I saved the original copy in Musescore 3-> Scores without use of a "Save As" function, so there was only one copy available at the time. Typically, I have a habit of saving three or four times once I am ready to close the application and shut down the computer.
Furthermore, I have checked the backup file for the score, but even in this the trumpet part's notes were gone, only a barren staff remaining.
I must also thank you very much for your assistance here.
In reply to I must apologize for the… by [DELETED] 36163018
I would recommend using the search facility built into your computer's OS (eg, in Explorer on Windows, or FInder on macOS) to find all files ending in ".mscz" or ".mscx". Be sure to include the option to search the entire drive, including system fodlers, including hidden folders. If you saved the file, it's absolutely there, just perhaps not in the place you thought you remembered having saved it. Note that after a crash, if MuseScore offers to restore your previous sessions, you're working on a separate hidden copy of the score until you save it, and if a second crash occurs before then saving it, now you're working on copy of a copy, etc.
Anyhow, without going back in time and looking over your shoulder to see what actually happened, it's tough to guess where your file is, but if you are sure you saved it, then I'm equally sure it's still there exactly in the same place you saved it to, and just as sure that the full system search will find it for you.