I was wondering if there is a way to create and store a custom dynamic? I’m trying to make sfmp or sffzmp
Thoughts?
It is possible to make sfmp as a single dynamic marking: Enter fmp, use the dynamics panel to make it subito, and in Properties change the Subito forte style to sf and turn off Separator shown. You can change the intensity level of either side of the combined dynamic afterward in the panel (but then you have to redo the Properties).
I don’t see a way to include the z in a combined dynamic. I think the best you can do is put sffz on the beat and mp on the next eighth or so. Adjust the beat placement of the second marking to reduce disturbance of the note spacing.
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wonderful! And I can keep this or include this in my set of dynamics permanently?
T
Once you’ve got one set how you want it, you can copy it freely. There isn’t a place like a template to store dynamic combinations.
Dear Dorico creators,
For Christmas this year, I would like to have the ability to save my custom dynamics sets .
Thanks!
T
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You could create it exactly as you want it and store it for all future projects as a Custom Playing Technique (see page 891 in the Dorico 5 manual if you are unfamiliar with that).
Ok, will take a look at this today! Thank you! Another thought in regards to subito markings, In all my experience playing in an orchestra, I have not seen mf subito or mp subito. Usually it’s subito before the dynamic. submp sub.mp or subitomp. with the adjusted font of course. Thoughts on this? Is there a way for that indication to be forced before the dynamic rather than after?
Thanks all!
Grammatically in Italian the adverb subito would come after the adjective.
But indeed it is more informative for the player to see sub. first!
P.S. See this thread from a couple years ago for a lengthy argument about the specific meanings/translations of sf and other markings.
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Wonderful !
T
Just food for thought, grammatically or not, the sub should always go to the left. I’ve NEVER seen it to the right of the dynamic. The left should be the default.
T
There has been the consensus that it is more important to show exactly from which point the new dynamic starts so the common compromise is to place the sub. after the dynamic even if it is grammatically incorrect.
As per Gould p. 107:
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We say “subito piano” because in English the adjective usually comes first. But that doesn’t mean that it should be written that way in the music. Gould makes an excellent point. The dynamic symbol needs to show where the event happens with exactitude and the sub. can obscure that. The subito is just confirmation that marking means what it says and there should be no dynamic gradation toward it. Musicians take in large amounts of information at once and “p sub.” is as easily seen in one glance as “sub. p”.
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Well,
I can see your point. However, as I mentioned before, (at least in the classical and film world) it should be sub followed by the dynamic. That’s the way the musicians for hundreds of years have been reading it and like to see it. Semantics aside… imho
T
Hi @Dilorenzo I was just restating Elaine Gould’s point. In any case, it is my impression that subito indications are relatively recent. For example, I don’t recall a single subito indication in Beethoven’s music, and he certainly knew his way around subito effects.
It would be interesting to know when they first started to be used. Here is one from the Cello and Bass part of Act 3 of La Boheme (Ricordi). The orchestra score is like that too.
On the other hand, the vocal score has subito pppp. So both versions have been used for at least a bit over a hundred years on the classical side. I have no idea about film scores and parts.
Well, John, I can tell you about the film parts and Orchestral parts, as both a performer and composer. Early on, (after graduating from the Curtis Institute Of Music) I had my first job with the Philadelphia Orchestra. From there I also had the privileged of playing with The San Francisco Symphony, Boston Symphony, New York Phil, Boston Symphony and Pops among several others. I’ve scored music and continue to write music for for film and television in addition to my modern works played globally. Ive brought this up to many of my colleagues and in all honesty, none of them can evan recall seeing the Subito follow the dynamic. ( not saying that there isn’t an instance where it may have happened a century or two ago) but it is not common place. Again, if Dorico wants to make it available, have it as an option one has to manually alter, not as THE DEFAULT SETTING. Just saying. Kinda like when one quantizes a passage, one has to also reset the playback parameters. Here’s another case where both should be done simultaneously and if someone really wants the sloppy displaced notes, they can do that as a second option, not default.
T
Thanks @Dilorenzo It’s an interesting question and one that I posed over at Notat.io.
I recall seeing the subito much more frequently after the dynamic sign and went looking for subito dynamics in some 20th century orchestral classics. I picked at random: The Rite of Spring, Debussy’s Images and Ravel’s Rhapsodie Espanol:
On the other hand, the following comes from Stravinsky’s 3 pieces. But the situation is a little different, in that the dynamics are referring to phrases, one of which comes after a break, so split-second recognition wasn’t necessary.
The film and more recent traditions must be different from what was done earlier in the 20th century. I am trying to remember what we did with subito dynamics when I was a copyist for Arnold Arnstein in the 1970s in NYC, but can’t really recall, unfortunately.
In any case, I agree with you that Dorico should make it easy to put the subito or sub. wherever the composer wants to. And that goes for a lot of other things besides subito dynamics!
I can tell you as a copyist that in the film world it’s perfectly normal for “sub.” to come after the immediate dynamic, if putting it to the left would cause any ambiguity.
I’m just dug through my Dropbox and found orchestral parts, prepped and recorded in the last year or two, in London, for scores by Lorne Balfe, Ben Wallfisch, Toby Chu, Scott Stafford (in Dorico), Terry Devine-King, Gareth Coker, Tom Howe, John Powell, Hans Zimmer & Steve Mazzaro. Rupert Gregson-Williams, that all use “sub” to the right of dynamic. (And no, they weren’t all prepped by me or the team I work for - some of them were prepped in LA but recorded here.)
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Thanks for the information, @pianoleo. It does sound like there may have been a preference change at some point in the 20th century. Maybe the last half.
Someone needs to write a reference book that documents the many changes that have taken place in music notation over the last three or more centuries. It would be a fascinating book.
