Please see examples below. Is there a way by which all barlines, except the closing ons can be removed or made unvisible?
I am copying a hymn from a church hymnal and started with open meter, because there are no barlines. I need a denominator style time signature, but as soon as I make that (1/2, denominator a half note) I get barlines and the final note (a breve) is forced into that meter, using ties. How can I avoid all this? I hope the screenshots make my problem clear.
Is there some reason your numerator is 1?
Chances are the measures would not be uniform; perhaps you should use SHIFT + B + | to add bar lines where you need them.
Something like this maybe?
(The “half note pulse” marker was created as Shift-X text element and aligned with start of the system and can be positioned to taste, of course.)
(EDIT: better solution without special system breaks)
Second possibility, using the “1 over half” meter:
The idea is to write only the first bar as metered, the rest in open meter, and then hiding the one barline.
How to:
You might want to slightly correct the spacing between first and second note by shifting the (now invisible) barline to the left:
RESULT:
(I simplified my first version of this method, see post above. Note spacing was set to 3 3/8 for this example, but lyrics are missing and layout has to be adjusted accordingly.)
Hi Derrek, thanks for your reaction. This melody (from a church hymnal) dates from 1539. In the 16th century vocal (religious) music this notation (with 1/2 and denominator a half note, as in the first example) can often be seen, e.g. in Geneva psalms. Just to practice with Dorico I made a copy from a hynmal, which I did many times in Finale, for use in a booklet for the congregation to sing. I needed both the time signature and the absence of barlines to make a real copy. What happened I have described above.
This was my third post on this subject. The first two did not get a reaction. Probably I did something wrong sending the post. I guess they can be found entering 1539 in the search field.
Hi, I did this accordingly and the result was exactly as I had wished for. Thank you very much.
Just for completeness … I think original notation would be more like this:
mensuration sign, no barlines
Thanks for your reaction, Derrek.
Yes, I think this looks more like the original, but as I am using this hymn for singing by the congregation I follow the (modernised) notation from our church hymnal.
Leen van Kleij
Hi Derrek, with modernized I actually mean: modern noteheads. The 1 over half note time signature (tactus minor, one down, one up) was customary in the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th. I don’t know your background, so maybe I have written something down here that is known to you. I myself have been a church musician for more than half a century.
Hello Leon,
I think you are answering me (I posted the example) - I would be really interested in this „1 over note“ style in historical documents, because so far I have never seen it …. Genuinely curious now!
Hello Michael,
It was a bit confusing for me to whom I was answering. Your posts and those of other forum members were mixed and I obviously answered the “wrong” person. Sorry for that.
I doubt if this 1 over half note (tactus minor) appears in historical documents. I have never seen it either elsewhere than in modern notations.
In our church hymnals from 1973 and before the psalms have the 2/2 time signature, or no time signature at all, and no barlines. In 2013 a new edition was published with the tactus minor (semitactus). In the preface of the hymnal it says that the rhythmical structure of the melodies assumes the tactus minor. So we have to do here with a modern way of notating unisono music from that period. I think the growing knowledge of the Early Music Movement had its influence here.
I suspect they have halved the note values, which is why the tactus is on the minim instead of the semibreve.
I’ve no idea what the “1” means. But you could use a 1/1 time signature to get the “1” as the numerator, and then add the minim as text.
You could then delete the barlines.
Yes, they’ve been halved. Here’s the Cantus firmus from Goudimel’s 1654 publication, which is the Soprano part in your picture above.
Or input an open meter after the first bar and just hide the first barline.
You are absolutely right, the note values are halved. The picture I sent to you of course was a modern presentation of the old notes. My problem was that I did not have access to the old sources. That is to say: although I have been a (advanced amateur) church musian for more than 50 years I hardly ever saw the old sources. The musical theory book from my conservatory eduction dedicated only one page to the mensural writing. Today while doing an extensive search on the internet I found the Lobwasser edition of the 150 Psalms. Do you know if Goudimel’s 1654 publication you mentioned is available for download? I did not see it during my search. One is never to old to learn.
It’s on IMSLP (beware: several hundreds of MB): 150 Pseaumes de David, 1564 (Goudimel, Claude) - IMSLP
Gevonden. Bedankt.
