How to put a vertical line between two notes

• Mar 16, 2022 - 16:36

Piano score: In order to indicate that a note in the bass clef should be played with the right hand, how can I put a vertical line between the note in the bass clef and the notes in the treble clef? If one selects a line from the palette and moves it between the notes it jumps about and will not form a vertical line between the notes. Any help gratefully received.


Comments

Use a Note Anchored Line (available from the [Add] menu).

Unfortunately this feature seems to be missing from the handbook (or at least, I can't find it), but the operation is simple:

Click the first note head.
Hold CTRL and click the second note head.
Click on [Add]>[Note Anchored Line}

a line connecting the two noteheads is added to the score.

In reply to by bobjp

Yes. I've done a lot of such but found such workarounds to be extremely fragile and collapse if the measure is moved. Most musescore workarounds don't scale well i.e. if you have a common figuration then you have to do it dozens (or hundreds) of times especially if the figure involves items that are not copyable.

In reply to by memeweaver

I have no problem honouring the intent of the composer. Whatever that is. There isn't always much way to know. Is what we see on the printed page actually the intent of the composer? Or is it notes on a page? Because the final arbiter of music is an actual performance. The page is a guide. How many wonderful performances do we hear that pretty much throw out much of what the composer intended and are the interpretation of the performer. The composer can have all the intent they want. And as important as that intent is, is means nothing without a performance. I have a recording of a Vivaldi trumpet concerto performed by the Boston Symphony. It is loud, bombastic and slow. It's great. But hardly the intent of the composer. And for several works like that there was originally no real score as we might think of it. Only solo lines over a figured bass. Which means that some works were performed by a few string and/or wind players with a keyboard and bass continuo. I look at the example posted above and can see that there are several ways to notate it to get the same result. The composer and/or the publisher (not much way to tell which) chose one way. I'm not saying we shouldn't honor it. I don't use MuseScore for transcription, so I look at things differently.

In reply to by bobjp

So you're agreeing with me?

In this particular score the composer was a famous piano pedagogue and so the layout of his scores would have particular meaning.

I am using Musescore to preserve and promote older scores, particularly where the score is difficult to read due to period typesetting or poor modern-day scanning. This also provides a vital first step in making scores available to blind musicians, and they are extremely concerned about layout fidelity.

In reply to by memeweaver

All I'm saying is that the term "composer's intent" is a misnomer at best. And not universally agreed upon. Do what you feel you must.
But..
How do we know that the measure you posted is indeed the intent?
Have you checked editions by major publishers to see how they did it?
Are there editions by lessor known or self publishers?

When I get a chance, I'm going to see if Sibelius can do this. That won't help you. But it may tell us if this is at all practical.

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