Beaming in 3/4?

Hello all,

I am reading in the version history for v.5 that we now can apply note grouping rules for cut time in common meter. What about 3/4? Can we now automatically have
image
instead of
image

?

Or is there maybe some other way than manually beaming that I just don’t think of?

Thanks
LAE

There isn’t an automatic way to beam like that in 3/4 – because it looks like 6/8.

I know you’ll find it in old engravings, but it’s usually considered less helpful.

I presume that setting the time sig to [1.5 + 1.5] or hiding 6/8 isn’t what you want for other groupings, either; so if you want it like that, you’ll have to join the beams manually.

2 Likes

Thanks for confirming, manual it is.
I don’t get [1.5+1.5]/4 to work though, is that what you meant?

I don’t think you can have fractions/decimals in the time signatures popover, it’s integers only.

It was a hunch - unsurprising that it doesn’t work, now I think about it. You could try a hidden 6/8, but as said, that’s likely to cause other groupings to look … well, like 6/8. :laughing:

1 Like

(Quoting Ben but more addressing the team:)

True for 3/4 in 3, but if you’re in 1, it both makes sense and is quite readable to beam any eighths together. Note that Dorico already beams 4 or 5 eighths together in 3/4, even if it’s 4 starting on the 2nd eighth. I would welcome such a setting.

The setting exists: you can enter [3]/4 into the time signatures popover.

6 Likes

Thanks, didn’t know about that one.

+1.
And if the Team would kindly look at how Amadeus does it, all issues regarding beaming would be gone, forever, and, IMO, further strengthen Dorico as a notation software.
ba4. would generate the OP’s case, ba0 full bar beam, or ba<whatever> does whatever you want, in repeats, until the next ba command comes. It would be a simple signpost in Dorico, like time signatures.

Can you explain, or point to some documentation/presentation?

What does the number represent?

Sadly there is very little publicly documented about Amadeus. The manuals are very “hardcore” reference material and hard to understand. I have them somewhere as PDFs and can try to locate the specific topic.

That said, the ba-command is very easy to understand.

ba0 = full beam
basomething beams in “something” where something is the “duration value” or a list of “duration values”.

ba4,4,2 would beam quarter-quarter-half
ba4,2,4 would beam quarter-half-quarter
ba4.,16,2. would beam dotted fourth, 16th, dotted 2.

The “something” is then cyclic, meaning it would repeat itself until the next ba-command.

So,
ba2,2
in 4/4 would not be needed since ba2 would suffice.
In the same way in 3/4
ba 4,4,4
is not needed as ba4 suffice.

As with time signatures in Dorico Amadeus can assign individual ba-commands to each stave, making it easy to beam differently against each other if that is wanted, just as you can have different time signatures in Dorico.

I could see this as a very useful function (with signpost) in Dorico.

The “plain” ba command in Amadeus cuts any beam (once) but I think Dorico’s “Split beam” is as good (if not better) as it would mean a lot of signposts (but they could be hidden naturally).

Further, a “sister command” in Amadeus to ba is “vocal” that cuts any beam to individual flags, e.g. for old-styled choral music.

So everything in the first quarter is beamed together, then everything in the 2nd quarter, then an entire half is beamed together?

Exactly.