a question about a specific tremolo

a question about a specific tremolo

The following tremolo is an extraction from “Un bel di vedremo” in “Madama Butterfly” of Puccini:
Screenshot 2019-12-27 16.02.12.png
How can I draw such tremolos in Dorico? I only can get the following tremolo:
Screenshot 2019-12-27 16.02.20.png

You cannot at present write those note values in Dorico for a two-note tremolo. Dorico will always write each note in the two-note tremolo as the actual duration of the tremolo, which in this case is a quarter note, so it will not appear dotted. We know that in older editions these kinds of note values are sometimes used, and hope to find a way to accommodate them in a future version.

Thank you very much for considering this!

I fiddled a bit with this little challenge and I think I cracked it.


Butterfly tremolo.dorico.zip (337 KB)
Needed steps:

  1. In Write mode/Note input, choose 32nd note (keyboard shortcut 3).
  2. Create a tuplet with ratio 18:24. This will span the whole bar.
  3. With the tuplet still active, choose input of dotted sixteenths (semiquavers) by typing 4 and then . (period).
  4. Input notes, 6 in a bar.
  5. Hide the 18:24-tuplet bracket and number (I left some of them visible in my example)
  6. Select the notes that should be tremolo two by two, and apply the 2-strokes multi note tremolo
  7. Add text items that look like 12-tuplets (I created a playing technique for it)
  8. Adjust placement of these text items/PTs in Engrave mode.

Theoretically, Dorico should be able to accept smaller tuplets, like 6:8 thirtyseconds for each beat. But as you also found, Dorico will helpfully destroy the notation if you turn that into a tremolo. But as long as the tremolo groups are only part of a longer tuplet, the tremolo will nicely display as two beamed dotted eighths/quavers with a double tremolo stroke inside.
In bar 6, there is a harmony change on the last eighth/quaver. The first two beats are equivalent to the previous bars with a 12:16 tuplet of 32nds, but the last beat consists of a tuplet of 12:18 sixty-fourth notes (I’m afraid they’re called hemidemisemiquavers). Again, apply tremolo (1-stroke this time) for each pair separately. Unfortunately, I haven’t found a solution to have them beamed in a group of four, like in the original score. If you try to beam them, the tremolos disappear.

Good work, Peter. I wouldn’t have thought to nest the whole lot inside a tuplet.

Wow, it is really an amazing approach!
Great, and Thank you very much!