Hello all
Most of my work consists in engraving 17th century music within an active ensemble. The figures in this century are absolute, so that all major chords are figured sharp, and all minors flat.
I’ve turned around all solutions concerning the figured bass entry, but whenever we have a flat figure outside the key signature, say a E with a flat figure, D major Key sig, it will read E-flatG-B. Choosing “relative to key signature” allows the D chord to read D-F-A with a flat figure, but the E chord stays with a flatG. (see attached file)
I understand typing natural instead of sharp for this E chord would solve the situation, but there is a hiccup: These editions are intended for sight reading transposition, which we do a lot in this music, before we do the actual Dorico transposition.
If we sight read transposing in F major, the transposed chord would be a G minor, but if the score has the natural figure it would mean G major. That is the importance of keeping the flat in the E chord.
Of course there is always GoFigure to be used, but since it is not within the Dorico way of working with lyrics, it demands a lot of clicking in order to get a figure somewhere else than under a note (which is also quite frequent).
My dream feature would be a “text mode” figured bass, that would be typed just like the actual one (which otherwise I like very much), but dissociated from the harmonies, so that the sharps and flats stay that way whatever key we are transposing the score to…
Figured bass 17th c.dorico (1.3 MB)
Do you really need to add the Flat? If you want to signify a G above an E in D major, it’s just 3.
If you want B flat above G in the key of F, it’s also just a 3.
Can you explain what the problem is here? You can put lyrics above the note, if you want.
Arguably, a flat3 on a G in F major is a ‘cautionary’ accidental.
Have you really got examples of Flats signifying “white notes that are in the key sig” from the 17th century? I can see that you might have some as “cancelling” accidentals from a previous sharp, but surely not just for a 53 in the key sig?
Hello Ben
The major (Sharp) and minor (flat) chords are often necessary when a decision is made (in a cadence, let’s play this chord major), so that being implied in the key signature is not enough when both are possible.
As to GoFigure, which is great, let’s say I have a whole note, with the figures 5-6/4-4-# quarter notes. I cannot move the lyrics popover with the arrows, right? So after writing 5 I have to press esc, activate the caret, move to the next quarter value, input the 3 other figures, but when navigating already existing figures with the arrows , these 3 figures that are not under the whole note are not included in the navigation… seems to me that the figured bass utility, that works great, would deserve this “text mode”…
Hi @benwiggy
Here’s Caccini’s Nuove Musiche, 1601:
The D minor (We are in F3 clef) has a flat figure.
As for GoFigure, I really think it can be the solution for this kind of need, but I can’t understand how to white the figures in between the values, such as sharp, 6/4, 5/4, sharp, like in this example made with the Figured Bass tool. As I understand, I activate the lyrics popover, choose the line (chorus translation in my case) and write the sharp. Then I exit the lyrics popover, move the caret to the next quarter note, activate the lyrics again, and choose the chorus translation again. Is it this difficult or am I missing something?
