Figured bass question

Dorico
1

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 “6, slashed 5” works perfectly in Dorico, but I’m not able to replicate the others. Is there a way without resorting to tricking it out via lyrics? (I’d like to avoid lyrics if possible.) Something I’m missing? Is this something you’d consider in your figured bass development or too far from the beaten path? (I do suspect others doing these types of exercises will eventually ask the same questions, but it’s a hyper-didactic perspective that’s more than a little out of vogue today.)

Just to give you an idea what this stuff looks like, a few lines attached… not perfectly standard figured bass notation but perhaps within the umbrella?

ex.jpg
ex.jpg877×452 70.8 KB

1 Like
2

I don’t know what it would take to accommodate this convention, but I will discuss with the team.

3

Hello,
thank you also to the Dorico team.

AHG : you describe the situation very well.
I also use +4 and +6 and 7,+ (vertical)
Just to tell you.

A+,
tjp

1 Like
4

thank you. As an aside, I have serendipitously had three conversations since I posted this 12 hours ago that suggest to me this +4, etc. notation is not as uncommon as I assumed, and that variations were used by some French Baroque composers. (And see jeanpierre’s reply to this thread for a fourth vote!)

Will look forward to any accommodation you can make. your team does a pretty impressive job of staying on top of user feedback, as I’m sure you know… but it’s noticed and appreciated.

1 Like
5

This is clearly how figured bass was taught to me in the Conservatoire. I’d love that, I admit…

1 Like
6

+1 for French figured bass notation.

Example Score.

7

Salve,
io uso il font MusAnalysis, lo puoi scaricare qui: MusAnalysis - Notation Central
Mi trovo molto bene! E’ facilissimo da usare poiché ci sono tutti gli esempi molto ben descritti. Con Dorico è veramente fantastico!
Buona Musica.

1 Like
8

Anche Figurato:

9

Bellissimo anche questo, lo proverò; mi sembra addirittura migliore.
Grazie!
Buona Musica.

10

Thanks, beautiful but several figures on different places (rhythmic divisions) on a half note is quite complicated! This works perfect on Dorico’s own figured bass (and in MuseScore which cannot transpose!). I have hope we will get a few more improvements in Dorico in the upcoming updates! Specially about extension lines. @benwiggy @dspreadbury

11

Sono d’accordo con te, speriamo…
Buona Musica.

1 Like