Half note notation - Flow 1.dorico (505,0 KB)
Some half notes, depending on their position in the bar, are shown as 2 tied quarter notes. In the uploaded flow all tied notes are entered as half notes. The notes in bar 6 and 7, with exactly the same notes, but a different position in the bar, show what happens as the half note is preceded or followed by other notes. Is this a bug, or a setting I did not discover until now?
Leen van Kleij
Yes, Dorico will notate “the duration of a half note” differently, depending on the metre, and the position in the bar.
For instance, a half-note in 12/8 would usually be one dotted quarter, tied to an eighth.
It’s also usual for a bar of 4/4 to be “split in half”, unless there’s a deliberate syncopation.
You can configure the way that Dorico interprets different note groupings in Notation Options; but because music is filled with exceptions, you may want to do something else.
In which case, you can use “Force Duration” (Letter O, or the G-clamp icon on the left-hand note entry palette) to fix durations without Dorico interpreting them. Specifying the division of a time sig (e.g. [2+1+2]/4 for a natty 5/4) may also be appropriate.
2 Likes
Hi benwiggy,
Thanks. Using the G-clamp most of the time will be the simplest way to correct durations. This rhythmic division will be used relatively a few times.
Leen
1 Like
It’s well worth setting and saving your own defaults for the Note Groupings, nonetheless.
1 Like
Please, see this thread :
Logically, if you are setting correctly the Notation Options > Notes grouping, you would not have to use the “force duration” command.
In relation to the above linked thread, it seems that the last update (5.1.7) fixed the bug discussed there.
1 Like
Hi,
I have set the Notation options accordingly. It works fine. Thanks.
Leen
Perfect.
Personally, I have set the Notation Options as showed in the thread I have linked above, and saved it as Default setting, because I don’t like a software correct what Beethoven or Schumann or Brahms have written.
In my wishes for future versions of Dorico, I should like that the default setting correspond to many people here desire : the software writes exactly what we enter (in particular dotted values), and other options (those currently defined by default) available as options for those who wants to. To sum up : reversing the strange defined choices in Dorico (and it doesn’t matter if it comes from Mrs Gould ; this book is not the gospel).