Arco and pizz. text should be non-italics

shoogle

• Jan 17, 2019 - 00:42

Reported version

3.x-dev

Priority

P1 - High

Type

Functional

Frequency

Once

Severity

S4 - Minor

Reproducibility

Always

Status

closed

Regression

Workaround

Project

MuseScore

More rigorously:

Arco and pizz. should use the "Staff" text style and not the "Expression" style.
The same applies to all channel-change text, such as "tremolo", "mute" and "open".

It is always good to provide a source. Mine is p.492 of Elaine Gould's "Behind Bars", where she explains which styles are used for which kinds of text. The key point is that there is a distinction between "technical instructions" and "expression markings". My understanding is as follows:

Technical instructions refer to methods of playing an instrument, such as plucking or bowing, and are usually specific to certain instruments. These are displayed in a roman (non-italic) typeface, which means using the "Staff" text style in MuseScore.

Expression markings refer to styles (e.g. staccato/legato) or emotions (e.g. brightly/sweetly) of playing. These are usually generic to all (or nearly all) instruments. These are shown in italics, which means using the "Expression" text style in MuseScore.

This should be easy to fix. The change needs to be made in the Master Palette and Basic and Advanced workspaces. The workspaces are just zip files with XML inside, but you need to double-check that MuseScore can actually read the ZIP file after you have edited it.

Comments

shoogle

• Jan 17, 2019 - 01:16

Correction: "tremolo" should be italic (i.e. use the "Expression" text style) because it is a style rather than a method of playing (any instrument can do it). All of the other channel-change markings should use the "Staff" style.

(Of course, MuseScore only has a special sound for string tremolos, but that is beside the point. In any case, it is rare to see "tremolo" or "trem." written in a score because they have symbols which are used instead.)

Jojo-Schmitz

• Jan 17, 2019 - 07:13

Priority

⇒

P2 - Medium

Marc Sabatella

• Jan 17, 2019 - 16:40

Priority

P2 - Medium

⇒

P1 - High

Your understanding of Gould matches mine, which was why I was confused as to why we were making these expression in the first place (I missed the original discussion).

Tremolo I'm not so sure of, though - does Gould really show it as expression? To me, it's still a technique even if it's a technique that can be applied to multiple instruments.

shoogle

• Jan 17, 2019 - 19:18

@Marc Sabatella, it seems you are correct. On page 224 Gould does indeed use roman (non-italic) for tremolo, but she labels it "trem." rather than "tremolo", and she only uses it in cases where it is necessary to distinguish between "measured" and "unmeasured" tremolos. She indicates measured tremolos (which are really just repeated notes) with "non-trem.".

Playback of measured tremolos is automatic and does not require a channel change (except perhaps to cancel a previous change). Playback of unmeasured tremolos requires a change to the "tremolo" channel (and is therefore only possible for instruments that have this channel). See attached file.