I’ve entered a figure on a rest, and the figures show as a signpost above the rest. I select the rest and switch on “Show figured bass” but the figure doesn’t display. Is there something else I need to do?
Also at the beginning of a new flow I have a rest in the bass but I would like to be able to have a figure here. I can’t enter any figure there however, not even the signpost for the figure. (NB I’m copying a pre-existing text and so I want it to look close to the original if I can).
For the first question - this ought to work, could you post an example here so we can take a look?
The second case - of a rest right at the start of a flow - unfortunately can’t work in Dorico. The problem is that Dorico needs to know the pitch of the prevailing bass note, in order to calculate all the intervals for the figuring. If there haven’t been any notes yet then there’s no way to do this. You may have to use some text instead.
I think @JanSteele might be talking about the fact that the ‘show figured bass’ doesn’t show the figured bass.
I thought we could enter two staves, input FB on the first one which had ‘additional’ notes, and then hide it:
But this indeed results only with a signpost, despite the appropriate option being set:
Elwro, you are correct that is what the issue is.
And Richard, the second issue, I guessed that that was the problem, but it’s a pity because it’s a fairly common notational convention with figured bass. I will do as you suggest and use some text.
Again, though, this should only happen right at the start of the flow (i.e. it is the second issue not the first), unless I’ve misunderstood something?
What’s really weird is that I’ve started back work on the same project this morning and (apart from that first rest) the procedure is working. But I might have added one thing, namely inserting “!” before I enter the figure. I can’t remember if I did that yesterday, but certainly today if I don’t add it then although the properties panel is active and allows me to click “Show figured bass” then nothing happens, but if I insert the “!” then it works fine. I’m not sure that that’s clear in the manual or whether that sequence of events was what was intended.
I’m happy to take a look if you want to attach the score.
You’re welcome Richard, though as I say it’s working now. But here it is. The issue is in Flow 5.
Fenaroli - Partimenti - Bk 1.dorico (1.2 MB)
I think possibly the issue here is just that the figures you are wanting to show on rests are root-position chords (e.g. the figure “3”), which by default aren’t displayed. If you change the corresponding Engraving Option
Then you won’t need the “!”.
I’ll try that. However because of the nature of partimento basses, sometimes they have 3, sometimes they have 5/3, and sometimes they have 5 (which is sometimes to be interpreted as 6/5 - though not always! - on a side note CPE Bach thought that there should be a figure of 5 with a curved line over the top to distinguish between the two meanings) I will still have to use the ! sometimes.
Thanks for your assistance.
