Figured bass (dashes and crosses)

[lgg96]

Good morning,
I would like to know the way, in the figured bass popover, to input dashed figures (meaning a diminished interval) and crosses (meaning the leading tone), similar to the caption:

Thank you very much!

[benwiggy]

You can enter a minus in the popover before or after the number for a diminished interval; and a plus for an augmented one.

However, the design of the figure will depend upon the font. Most fonts use the slash to indicate augmentation, though a combined 4+ symbol is common.

In the absence of a font with this design, you might have to use text/lyrics.

[MarcLarcher]

I’m afraid you’re looking after the kind of french figured bass I have learned to use back in the Conservatoire. I already made a request to be able to input those (especially the + for the leading tone) as figured bass…

[benwiggy]

On further inspection: there is support for augmented symbols on 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9; but only support for diminished symbols on 2, 5 and 7.

So you could design a font to display +2, +4, +5, +6, +7, +9, and /2, /5, and /7.

(This is with the Engraving Option to use slashed symbols for both diminished and augmented forms.)

If you can think of a good name, I could produce a font with these symbols fairly easily.

[MarcLarcher]

@benwiggy

If you can think of a good name

How about “basse chiffrée”? Half kidding here
I’d rather have the team provide an option for this, actually…

[jeanpierre]

Hello,
see this :

Figured bass question

To the dev team: thanks for your hard work and a solid update. Question: I’m doing some work with some French figured bass exercises that use a kind of idiosyncratic notation for dominant 7ths. (This is the system Nadia Boulanger taught, and I think it had its roots in Dubois.) Root position dom 7ths are 7,+ (vertical) 65 = 6, slashed 5 43 = +6 42 = +4 (the pluses are literal and can’t be replaced with sharps. I understand + has other uses related to the LT in some French pedagogy.) the …

[benwiggy]

Here’s what I’ve been able to do: so most of the augmented intervals can be displayed with a plus; but only 5 and 7 can be displayed with diminished slashes.

Chiffree-Regular.otf.zip (4.2 KB)

I’ve called the font “Chiffree”. Apologies for not using the accent, but I’m not convinced about using extended characters in a font name.

[MarcLarcher]

Actually, the + is not showing an augmented interval. It shows where the leading tone is. For instance, a dominant chord in its fundamental state is notated 7 with a + under it (because the third of the chord is the leading tone).
We then would need to be able to put the + wherever we need. And sharps and flats are used before the figures when needed.

[benwiggy]

So it indicates the 7th of the key, not the chord, every time?

It’ll probably have to be done like Figurato for now.

[Jazzisfaction]

hey
I’m in e-minor…
my chord is
B D# (F#) A C
why is Dorico showing a natural sign behind the “7”?
How do I get rid of that please?

[benwiggy]

Probably because your Engraving Options > Figured Bass > Figures > Diminished Intervals is set to show unmodified figures if they form a diminished interval with the next lowest figure.

D# to A natural is a diminished fifth, which in some schools requires a confirmation that you don’t want a perfect fifth.

[Jazzisfaction]

Yep..that’s it…thanx a lot. !!