opening a musicxml file seems to mess up the voices

• Aug 8, 2024 - 16:42

Hello,

The scores I let Newzik parse from pdf to musicxml, have their voices mixed up when opened in MuseScore 4. Where notes should be voice 2 on the first staff, musescore shows them as voice 1 of the second staff, but displayed on the 1st staff.

I edited a file to restrict it to 2 measures so that it's easier to show what's going on.

If you open file newzik_file.musicxml in MuseScore 4 (I checked for new versions and got the message: your version is up to date), and select the second staff of the second measure, you'll see that voice 1 is displayed on staff 1. See newzik_file_measure_2.png.

In case you see something different, I saved the file in MuseScore, see newzik_file.mscz.

To compare what's in the xml files, I exported the file as musicxml file, see newzik_file_ms.musicxml.

I compared the note descriptions in the second message, and they both describe the notes of voice 1 in staff 1. Then the files continue with the G half note at the beginning of the first staff.

The original file contains:

           <note>
                <pitch>
                    <step>G</step>
                    <octave>4</octave>
                </pitch>
                <duration>4</duration>
                <voice>2</voice>
                <type>half</type>
                <stem>down</stem>
                <staff>1</staff>
            </note>

That seems ok, however the musescore xml file contains:

<note default-x="34.56" default-y="-30.00">
        <pitch>
          <step>G</step>
          <octave>4</octave>
          </pitch>
        <duration>8</duration>
        <voice>5</voice>
        <type>half</type>
        <stem>down</stem>
        <staff>1</staff>
        </note>

So musescore has changed the note from voice 1 staff 1 to voice 5 staff 1.

Question is: why ? :-).

Now, I have corrected the musescore file in what I expect it to be, see newzik_file_good.mscz, and exported it to musicxml, see newzik_file_ms_good.musicxml.

As said before, first the notes of voice one are described in both files, but then the code differs.

The original file contains:

           <backup>
                <duration>8</duration>
            </backup>
            <note>
                <pitch>
                    <step>G</step>
                    <octave>4</octave>
                </pitch>
                <duration>4</duration>
                <voice>2</voice>
                <type>half</type>
                <stem>down</stem>
                <staff>1</staff>
            </note>
            <note>
                <chord/>
                <pitch>
                    <step>B</step>
                    <octave>4</octave>
                </pitch>
                <duration>4</duration>
                <voice>2</voice>
                <type>half</type>
                <stem>down</stem>
                <staff>1</staff>
            </note>

While the musescore export contains:

      <backup>
        <duration>16</duration>
        </backup>
      <note default-x="34.56" default-y="-30.00">
        <pitch>
          <step>G</step>
          <octave>4</octave>
          </pitch>
        <duration>8</duration>
        <voice>2</voice>
        <type>half</type>
        <stem>down</stem>
        <staff>1</staff>
        </note>
      <note default-x="34.56" default-y="-20.00">
        <chord/>
        <pitch>
          <step>B</step>
          <octave>4</octave>
          </pitch>
        <duration>8</duration>
        <voice>2</voice>
        <type>half</type>
        <stem>down</stem>
        <staff>1</staff>
        </note>

So there is a difference in the duration values in the backup and note descriptions.
Does this make musescore mixing things up and introducing voice 5?

If the original file is wrong, I don't expect MuseScore to react the way it does now.
Could it do better :-)?

Thanks!
Luc.

Attachment	Size
newzik_file.musicxml	9.67 KB
newzik_file_measure2.png	5.74 KB
newzik_file.mscz	17.29 KB
newzik_file_ms.musicxml	15.25 KB
newzik_file_good.mscz	17.3 KB
newzik_file_ms_good.musicxml	15.27 KB