support for accidental styles

• Dec 11, 2022 - 01:26

Hi, I'm writing a piece for orchestra in a post-tonal language, and when I tried to change the accidental style, it seemed that there is only one in MuseScore, namely the one following the rules of eighteenth-century common practice. These conventions are inadequate and inconvenient for notating much of the music of the last 100+ years.
In Lilypond there are no less than 20 accidental styles (https://lilypond.org/doc/v2.23/Documentation/notation/displaying-pitche…), and while this can be considered an overkill, implementing at least the most important ones would make MuseScore more flexible to notate moderately "modern" music.
Thanks for your attention.


Comments

Have you tried the courtesy accidentals plugins? It provides support for some other style. Not as many as 20, but if one you require isn't there, it probably be added.

And yes, someday it is hoped to provide this functionality without requiring a plugin. But for now, it works great, and will even come pre-installed in MuseScore 4.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Hi, thanks for your prompt response. I wasn't aware of the courtesy accidentals plugins, thanks for pointing that out. I'm using MuseScore 4 for testing, so I only needed to activate it.

It's a great step in the right direction, although it would need to add a few styles, the only actual alternative included now is dodecaphonic, which is not widely used, actually, except for pieces of the period.

How do I request more styles? The two most used nowadays are those named "modern" and "neo-modern" in Lilypond:

modern
This rule corresponds to the common practice in the twentieth century. It omits some extra natural signs, which were traditionally prefixed to a sharp following a double sharp, or a flat following a double flat. The modern rule prints the same accidentals as default, with two additions that serve to avoid ambiguity: after temporary accidentals, cancellation marks are printed also in the following measure (for notes in the same octave) and, in the same measure, for notes in other octaves.

neo-modern
This rule reproduces a common practice in contemporary music: accidentals are printed like with modern, but they are printed again if the same note appears later in the same measure – except if the note is immediately repeated.

I would say "neo-modern" is the most widely used.

Hi, I am responding to you because i have a special request concerning special noteheads as well. I have developed a white-note black-notehead glyph that makes it far easier to learn to play the keyboard score where it is not needed to know key signatures as the black keys all have one of two note heads, one note head if the key is in flats and another when it is in sharps, or it is an accidental black key in any key signature. The white keys only use the round oval note heads even if they are designated as a sharp or flat.
With these black key noteheads the student has a better spatial orientation of where the note is located on the keyboard so major and minor intervals are visually correct as well.

I know that this does not answer your issue; however, if there is a chance that this could be accomplished within MuseScore I would like to know your thoughts and outcome. on your own quest.

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.