I notice that if I choose a new Player → Fretted Instrument → Requinto I get a guitar-like instrument that sounds 1 octave higher than standard guitar notation.
However, when I import an xml requinto file e.g. from Sibelius, I get a ‘Requinto in F’ in Dorico, which is exactly the instrument I would like.
Is there any way in which I can make the ‘inbuilt’ requinto behave in the same way, transposing a 4th?
I expect many other guitar-like instruments might benefit from the same treatment.
I attach a file from the excellent HAGO website which gives a good picture of the variety commonly found worldwide.
This is very interesting to me. I didn’t know that there were guitars that transposed by intervals other than the octave.
These transposing guitars that sound a fourth, fifth or sixth down from their written pitch: do they follow the same conventions as regular transposing instruments, and show their concert pitch in a concert score, and their transposed pitch in a transposed score? The impression I get from reading that page is that they tend to be shown in concert pitch rather than sounding pitch.
I was wondering if I could create my own instrument (as in Sibelius) as an option, having selected the Requinto in the New Player list.
I notice that there are all sorts of options like that for e.g. trumpet.
You cannot currently create your own instruments in Dorico, though this is planned for the future. I will see about adding these transposing guitars in the next update, if I can.
Thanks Daniel - that would be great.
At the moment, I seem to have a ‘Requinto in F’ when I imported a guitar orchestra xml file.
So I deleted all the music and have saved it as a template until such time as it appears on the instrument list - so - no worries!
Andy
I am really enjoying Dorico 3 and its new guitar features - the fingering is now so easy - much better than a certain other program!
I do still have queries about the Requinto.
When I go to Setup-> Requinto->Edit Strings and tuning, I notice that the 5th string is shown as E3 rather than D3 which would be a 4th higher than a guitar like all the others. No huge problem since it’s easy to change here.
More problematic is the fact that (classical) guitars are written an octave above their concert pitch, even in scores with orchestral instruments.
A treble clef sign with a dangling little 8 that actually transposed could resolve the problem though concert scores might be difficult to interpret.
My main point is that this same manner of notating should also be applied to the requinto. I also notice that, even though transposing layout is switched on in layout->player options, the requinto does not transpose - but stays with the same notated pitch and same time signature. When I play C on the requinto, the pitch is F - so it should transpose? The sounding pitch is correct.
Dorico’s definition for requinto isn’t currently octave-transposing, which I guess is a mistake. We can change this for the future, but in the meantime I guess you’ll have to use another guitar, which does transpose by an octave, and then edit its name and string/tuning definition to make it look as you expect.
Yes, Daniel - I can certainly use another guitar. But would that transpose down a 4th in a transposing layout even if I changed its tuning to match a true requinto?
And thanks Derrek for your Halion idea - I’ll try that too.
No, another guitar will only ever transpose by an octave. You could do the same trick as before, i.e. create an empty ensemble using the requintos you want to use in Sibelius, then export that as a MusicXML file and bring that into Dorico, which should give you the transposing instruments you’re expecting.
Derrek - that works easily and just what I wanted.
Daniel - yes it’s fine to import a Requinto from Sibelius - the pitch and transposition work perfectly.
Thanks to both for your assistance.
