Fermata in cues

The cue functionality is great.

One little request: the fermata positioning isn’t ideal. In cues should the fermata appear on the corresponding note or rest side, shouldn’t it?

Best, Peter

This is a tricky one to solve, but it is on our list for the future. I think (though I haven’t tried this recently) that you should be able to set the properties for that fermata such that one of them appears on each side of the staff.

Yes, exactly what I thought: If the fermata of the main instrument was below the rest, it would look great. :slight_smile:

This works. Thank you very much, Daniel. I could have find this by myself…

To my eyes the multiple fermatas - even when the main is below the staff - are redundant.
Dorico Fermata in Cues.png
Ideally there would either be an option to exclude fermatas from cues - OR - give the ability to hide just one of them by setting opacity to 0. What is happening for me is if I set the opacity to 0 on one fermata - both are hidden.

It seems to me that the player would always want to know whether the cue he or she is referencing included a fermata.

But the existence of a fermata in one part implies a fermata in all, doesn’t it?

Ah. Dummy. I missed that bit. You’re right, the fermata is quite present above the rests already.

There might not be a written fermata in all the parts. One player might have a cadenza (anything from some grace notes taking up a few beats worth of time, up to a full-on concerto cadenza that is several pages of notation in the soloist’s part!) while the other parts have a fermata over a held note and/or a rest.

I would still like Dorico to be really clever and put all fermatas in the same rhythmic position for all parts. I do this whenever possible in all my work.

Doesn’t Dorico already do this?

In the OP’s example, the vertical placement of the fermatas is obviously defective, but it looks to me like their rhythmic position is exactly right – just as in situations where there are no cues involved.

No it doesn’t. If I have one part where a fermata is on the final crotchet of a bar, but other parts have semibreves, I would like Dorico to alter to dotted minim tied to a crotchet, to put all fermata in the same rhythmic position.

Dear Steve,
I do not think that is the standard notation. It might be an optional choice though. And you might achieve it manually — probably faking ties with slurs…

It’s pretty standard for stuff that needs to be sight-read in the studio. It’s almost my only use for force durations, but it would be nice to have it as an option as Dorico already does clever stuff with fermata placement.

Ah, I see what you mean. I haven’t encountered that personally, but then I don’t do studio work.

Can I ask, what difference does this make to the performer who has the semibreve? Don’t they do the same in either case, i.e. hold their note for a bit longer? (This is a genuine question, not a disagreement: I would be interested to understand the difference.)

As the one who has a whole note with a fermata - you never know when the music will go on. The other person might have also a whole note with a fermata, or they might have a quarter note with fermata and a hell of things coming after it - things that I would have to wait for.
So yes, it is critical to know where the fermata “really” is.

It allows the conductor to conduct to the fermata. If written the ‘normal’ way, there are always questions and the true location gets pencilled in. It’s a massive timesaver.

Estigy, isn’t that what cues are for? Cues don’t have to be only in rests!

I must admit that if I was reading a part with a bunch of tied notes in a complicated rhythm and a fermata somewhere in the middle of them, I would wonder if all that was a typo. But it depends what you are used to, of course.

Now I see the logic. Thanks!

Of course you are right, composers and arrangers could use cues for that. But I’ve been playing clarinet in a community band in Austria for about 25 years now, and I’ve come across cues in combination with fermatas only about 5 times by now.

What I have come across though are fermatas placed in my part over very long notes (or rests) while other players play their notes happily, with me wondering what’s going on there. Combine that with non-professional conductors and poopies is gonna hit the fan pretty quickly :wink: