Brilliant concept! I do a lot of transpositions for singers. So far I duplicated the original flow of a song, made the transposition and then created Layouts for each transposition.
The above concept with doing the transposition override directly when setting up a new layout avoids the clutter of many unnecessary flows - and having to do corrections at multiple places.
Anyway: usually there is no problem with transposing Figured Bass, but with this method I get odd numbers (have a look at the double bb):
Why does this happen?
The original Hotteterre is in D-Major, the numbers are 6/5/b and #/b9
when having the transposed layout (for a C-Major version) the numbers display as 6/5/bb and bb9/#
I’m afraid that’s how dorico reads the baroque flat sign in figured bass. When you write a flat on an a minor, it assumes you have a c flat -e in the harmony… @benwiggy did a post on agnostic figured bass, but I couldn’t find a way to keep the natural out of figured bass, as per this discussion :
Hope in the future we will get the possibility to “freeze” the figures, so that it will be more useful to baroque music when transposing…
First of all, you don’t need a # in D major, because it’s just the natural third of the key. So Dorico might be interpreting that as a semitone higher than the natural third. E.g. C##.
Select the figure, and check in the Status bar that the chord is correct.
The thing is, the original was one tone higher, so the bass had an A, and the figure 6-5-Flat, which in the 17th century meant a minor third. You can write it with a 6-5-Natural figure, and then when transposing one tone lower the A becomes a G and has the figure 6-5-Flat. But the problem remains that the original Flat figure under the A does not work, unfortunately.
Btw. my Engraving options are set, as you suggested.
The reason for this weird display is another one:
In the original print (Paris 1712) they use the b instead of a natural (which was quite a common practise). So the first bass note in bar 19 (C natural) was written as C flat. The figured bass numbers on beat 3 were also written with a b instead of a natural for the third. By converting the whole thing into modern notation one should of course change these b to naturals beforehand - otherwise we get these weird (=wrong) results when transposing (the “mistakes” add up).
Here is the original print of the bass part as comparison:
As said, always look at the Status Bar at the bottom of the window, which will show you the notes that your figures represent. If it says something like C flat or C##, then you know you need to change something.
It’s perfectly possible to use flats for naturals if you want.
It’s entirely possible, if you have the Relative engraving option, and you make sure that Dorico has understood the “correct” notes in the Status Bar from what you typed.
Still, if the editor - like in the print from 1712 - uses flats instead of naturals in the main notation (not just in the figured bass), and also not consequently, there are no engraving options to cover both cases at the same time.
Modern notation will uncover these irregularities.
Strange thing, as a musician, playing from an original source with these irregularities it’s no problem to get the right notes (or to get the notes right).
Sorry to disagree with @benwiggy , but even with the Relative engraving option you cannot use the 17th century convention with # for major an b for minor for all chords.
In @k_b ‘s context (D major key signature) it works for a a minor with a b figure but not for a B minor (since the d# is not in the key signature). I am aware it is considered superfluous by modern standards but it is a necessary feature in basso continuo. @benwiggy , I’ve tried your Gofigure police as lyrics, but could not find the way to poperly notate figures that are not just under a note. Do you have a link to a tutor?
