I am now using Dorico for a few weeks. Until now I could solve all problems I encountered bij reading the manual, looking video’s of searching here in this forum.
Now I can not find a solution for my problem. So I hope someone can help.
I am working for some years (as a real amateur) on a requiem for woodwind ensemble, piano, soprano and alto. I compose in Cubase 13, now I am doing the layout in Dorico. The text is translated by a former collegae in the dialect of the town where I was born, that makes it very special for me.
One of the parts of this requiem is a solo for the alto-voice. It is supposed to sound as a Gregorian chant. In Cubase it was possible to hide the time signatures and bars and beam the notes like in this picture:
I used in Cubase lots of different time signatures to make it like this.
In Dorico5 Pro I can not find a way to beam it exactly as in the Cubase version. I tried the open meter, but I can not beam notes just as I would like it. Is this possible in Dorico?
You describe exactly how I tried to do it. I can beam the first two notes together but it is imposssible to beam the following three notes after that together. Dorico refuses to do it. Is there something I could do wrong?
I select the three notes (notes G-F-G in the part) and then click in Edit > Notations > Beaming on Beam Together. Then nothing changes.
To reinforce the above posts, I can only recommend that you establish a few keyboard shortcuts for these beam editions ; searching for the menu shown by John quickly becomes very time consuming.
I think, we could try to find a notation style, that expresses what you want, but in a more logical way, notationally. This is not meant to criticise, but to clarify the means.
So for example if you want to use eighth notes, but with void noteheads, there is a way, it’s just not beaming across a half note, which will not work in Dorico. Or the note group at “dae al…” with its “broken away” beam would be very difficult to generate in Dorico, and I think, there might be a slightly more consistent method, which will nevertheless communicate what you want, and can be written with Dorico’s tool set.
Would you mind give a bit of your explaining about the different styles of note groups you are using? Then we could think about methods.
Ofcourse I do not mind to explain why I want it this way. I am very glad that you want to help. I am not a pro in music and just starting to learn Dorico, I would very much like to learn.
It has to sound like Gregorian chant. I can not write it down in the medieval way because I do not have that knowledge and most singers can’t read that.
So I tried to notate it in modern notes but I tried to show the structure of Gregorian chant. In Gregorian chant there are groups of 2 and groups of three notes. The length of notes was not notated like it is now. In Cubase I succeeded in notating it in that structure. Even if it is not normal in modern note writing, it reflects the best the structure of the Gregorian way I think. Therefore there are also beams like the broken away beam at “dae al…”: it groups the three notes together.
Perhaps it can be done with slurs, but I think slurs suggest something completely different from what I mean.
@gerardka, there are a number of forum members (@dan_kreider and @Romanos come immediately to mind, though they’re not the only ones) who are quite expert (I am not!) in chant notation in its older and modern forms, so I have no doubt that they will have advice for you.
In the meantime, I did a quick web search for “chant modern notation,” and a number of seemingly “legit” and valuable links were returned:
This is done with quarter, and half notes (can also be dotted), then hiding all stems, and using different breath marks and barlines for structure and phrasing:
The first style looks to me as the most promising. I looked in some of the websites @ judddanby suggested and I looked at pictures of modern notations of Gregorian on the internet. I will dive more into it next week. The rest of the weekend I am occupied so that will have to wait.
I want to say that I am very glad with so much help here from people who know very much about music and Dorico. Thank you!!!
Sorry I’m late to the party. My own method is to write black notes as quarters, and “long notes” as half-notes, with stems hidden. For re-articulated unisons (such as when three puncti are put together) I just use the add interval command to add more unison notes. This is easier than trying to add three beats and then re-space them after the fact. When all the notes are input (and I’ve used layout options to significantly decrease the default note spacing and the ratio), then I use note spacing to group the neumes. The end result can be quite pleasing:
You are not to late to the party!
Thank you, this looks very good. I will try it to do it this way. I will show the result when it’s ready ( or come with more questions if i do not succeed because of lacking knowledge of Dorico)
It looks a lot better.
I chose to use 3 lenghts of notes. Therefore there are also dottet black notes. Perhaps it is not like the real Gregorian chant, but it reflects more the way I want it to sound.
Now I am stuck with the spacing of the notes. I assume I can not use layout options to decrease the default note spacing and the ratio because that will also change the spacing in the other flows; it should only change in this flow. If I am wrong, can someone show me please how to do that.
I tried to move the notes individual in Engrave mode, note spacing selected, select the blue square above a note, and then move the circle above the note to the right or left with shift-ctrl-alt-arrow. I can move one note a little bit, but I can not move a next note. It wil not move. I have read the manual, but it is not clear to me how I should do it.
You can use a “note spacing change” in engrave mode, to change just a section (or indeed, reset a section later on to your defaults). Select a spot where you want the spacing change to start, and then use the engrave menu.
Regarding note spacing, use the square handles to move a whole column. Those you can stretch quite far. The circle handles allow fine adjustments without affecting the spacing of the column itself, and are used for different reasons.
As an aside, there are only really two main schools of thought that I’ve noticed:
1.) black notes, and dotted black notes (similar to the solesmes rhythm dot). Other lengthened notes mid-phrase either receive more than one punctum, or they get a tenuto marking which, again, imitates a solsemses marking.
2.) black and white note heads, where, simply, black is “short” and white is “long”. Tenutos might be thrown in, might not.
In both cases, the squiggly “quilisma” is often added into the notation (this can be faked with a notehead set).
I’m leery of seeing black notes, dotted black notes, AND white notes… I’m not sure what the difference between the latter two are, since it’s usually one or the other, depending on the preference of the engraver. So as a singer, I would have to ask the director what they were actually wanting.
I keep struggling with this flow to get it as nice as your examples
.
First I changed the dotted notes in tenuto’s. That was the easy part.
Then I changed the note spacing as you described. I changed the default space for crotched in 3 and the custom spacing ratio in 1.00 .
Next I selected in the left toolbox in engrave mode the option note spacing.
The first time I did this I could move notes with the square handles. I could not make it like I wanted it. Today I am trying again, the same way. But now the notes can’t be moved. What could I do wrong now?
The first time when I could move the notes; I couldn’t place them as I wanted. The rest of the notes moved also, making it a real mess. Do you perhaps have some tips that can help me to move them as they should?
, I have some more questions, I hope I do not ask to much.
