Dynamics popover quirks

Hello - just reporting some little quirks with the Dynamics popover in Dorico 2. When writing a suffix with the popover, if it contains a closing bracket or quotation marks I get some odd results - missing letters, odd capitalisations, etc. It all works fine if the suffix is added in the Properties panel, so no urgency to fix this I suppose…

The reason for this is the difficulty in fully parsing what you enter. Dorico handles input like “(mf)” fine, and will parenthesise the resulting dynamic, but things get a bit wonky if you type “mf (sweetly)” or “(mf sweetly)”. This is something that we hope to improve in future, when time allows.

Hi
I use quite a lot of “f” poss. and the like (for instance, when I want the performer to force an effect rather than the experienced dynamics). It works fine to use pre-/suffix ". But when I save and close Dorico, and continue working the next day, these " (quotation marks) are just gone. That is, if I select the dynamic in question, the properties panel shows there is supposed to be a pre-/suffix there. But the marks are gone.
Is there a fix for this strange behaviour?
Thanks for å brilliant program

  • Jan Martin Smørdal

So you actually want to enclose a dynamic in quotation marks? I can’t say I’ve ever seen that! Try using smart double quotes, i.e. “ and ” instead of ", and it should work OK.

Thanks for the answer Daniel, I will try the smart ones - sounds smart.

Just to inform: The use of quotation marks on dynamics is not at all unusual. One can find it in scores by modern famous composers like Lachenmann (check the famous “Gran Torso” from the 70’s for instance), Mathias Spahlinger (check “Furioso”. M.S. also inspired - by the way - Adés using time signatures like 5/6, 4/7 etc), and several other contemporary European composer (me included).

What does using quotes with dynamics signify that the same dynamic mark without the quotes would?

The quotes signify that a physical action is to be produced with the prescribed, well, intensity; however, the resulting sound will be quite different, often quite softer. This is the case with some broadband noises, or particularly resistant multiphonics on wind instruments, and so on.

Thank you.

Thanks for further clarifying LSalgueiro.

Daniel: I still have the problem with the smart quotation marks - they disappear. I guess I’ll have to input all of these at the very end of the process, ensuring they will be printed/displayed on the PDF. Or is there any other tip/trick?

It seems to work OK for me – please see the attached project.

quote.dorico.zip (444 KB)

Thanks for following up Daniel. It now seems to work fine with my scores also.
Happy new year - looking forward to next update(s) in 2020.