Arpeggios and fermatas
MS 4.4.4 on Windows 11. I just brought the attached score up from MS 2.1 by creating a new file and then copying the music of the old file into the new one, then editing and testing the result.
Arpeggios: the original score specifies some of the arpeggios as cross-staff--the upper hand follows the lower rather then playing simultaneously with it. (The graphic for that spans both staves rather than breaking between them.) I did not find a way to reproduce that in MS 4.
Fermatas: Only the last fermata in the piece, on the last note, held for the stretch time (200%). The others did not stretch at all. I increased their stretch in the attached score to 400% to make them actually stretch to 200%.
I don't know if the way I created the piece has any influence on these issues.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| I Walked Today Where Jesus Walked.mscz | 153.42 KB |
Comments
You can drag that lower arpeggio up to span both staves. It will look right but it won't playback correct. I made a few adjustments to the last two lines. Maybe not quite what you had in mind.
In reply to You can drag that lower… by bobjp
I have had no success in dragging the lower arpeggio up to span both staves. When I try it just pushes the staves further apart. It does not move into the upper staff. If I try to create a spanned arpeggio by selecting both chords together it creates a separate arpeggio for each chord. This also affects playback. I checked Appearance under Properties to see if something there would make this possible but didn't find anything.
I'm learning that in MuseScore a fermata affects the playback timing of all notes at that beat, so when notes on a grand staff have a longer note in one staff against a group of shorter notes in the other staff you cannot write a staggered fermata to hold only the last note of the set of shorter notes that play against the longer note in the other staff. If you do, it results in two separate holds affecting both staves. It's not uncommon in professionally engraved scores to write in this way, but MuseScore cannot play it back that way. This would be an even greater problem in an orchestral score with multiple staves with different note durations in each one.
In reply to I have had no success in… by Gerald Reynolds
With some more experimentation I find a workaround. In a staggered fermata, set the stretch of the first one to 100% and the second one to whatever stretch you want and the playback will sound right.
In reply to With some more… by Gerald Reynolds
You can do the same thing by setting the "first one" to not Play and the "second one" to the appropriate stretch. There might be situations when one would work and the other not.
In reply to You can do the same thing by… by TheHutch
Hadn't thought of that, but good suggestion to keep in mind.
In reply to I have had no success in… by Gerald Reynolds
Select the lower arpeggio. Grab the upper box and drag it up. Yes, at first the staves start to spread. But then they go back together and the arpeggio spans both. But playback isn't correct. I'd be interested in seeing your score with the corrected holds.
In reply to Select the lower arpeggio… by bobjp
Much better to use SHIFT + arrow to move the handle. I think that method makes the playback include all the notes covered by the gliss. (not at my PC to check just now).
See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/4/arpeggios-and-glissandi#multi-cross…
In reply to Much better to use SHIFT +… by SteveBlower
Thank you for that tip. It works. Playback still plays as two separate arpeggios, but at least the score reads as intended.
I did not find the link to edit the document as I've done often. Maybe that permission is now denied. The word number is misspelled numberr shortly before Changing Playback of Arpeggios.
In reply to Thank you for that tip. It… by Gerald Reynolds
The handbook is currently locked for editing while it is being transferred to GitBook as announced here https://musescore.org/en/node/371579
The announcement dated 12 Nov 2024 says the transition is expected to take 2 weeks, but ... perhaps that was over optimistic (to put it as kindly as possible).
[Edit] Realism meets optimism... Here it is https://handbook.musescore.org/
In reply to Select the lower arpeggio… by bobjp
OK, here it is.