I’m part of a community of composers of handbell music using Finale. Of course, we’re all struggling with the end of a program I’ve used for 23 years and others for 30. For me continuing to use Finale is problematic because MakeMusic’s announcement came in the midst of upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 11. I’m not sure the version of Finale I’ve been using for 14 years will run on Win11.
I’ve downloaded Dorico Pro for the 60 day trial period. I’ve written an XML file out of Finale and see it loaded into Dorico. I’ve been doing a lot of reading, but sometimes one must learn by doing.
On to the immediate problem. Handbells, to state the obvious, are a set of tuned bells, 25-60 and more, played by one to a dozen or more performer. This allows the individual bells be rung – and damped – independently. If a bell is not to be damped at the end of its note value the symbol “LV” (yeah, originally Laissez Vibrer, now usually called Let Vibrate). The end of an LV is marked with “R” for ring note values or the bullseye symbol from harp notation. How might I do something similar in Dorico?
I’ve already looked at LV ties. They mark the start of LV, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to designate a damp.
In Finale I did this through expressions that turned on and off the MIDI sustain pedal. A lot of such expressions are in my test XML file. In Dorico they now seem to be text blocks.
Janus, could you explain a bit more how that would work? What kinds of things are the “LV” and “R”? How does one make them affect upstem notes and not downstem?
I was simply interpreting your description (I have zero knowledge of Handbell conventions) This is just a line with text end caps. It has no affect on playback.
I’m aware people outside the handbell world have zero knowledge of handbell conventions. I hope I can explain things in terms outsiders can understand. Since hearing the effect of the LV and damp is an important part of the composition process I would very much want to hear it affect playback. How do I do that (or what do I go looking for in the massive help pages)?
@bellist, welcome to the forum. I’ve taken the liberty of moving your post and the replies to a new thread so we can discuss this in a dedicated thread.
I think it should be possible to set up a template that contains the appropriate symbols relatively easily: this is what playing techniques are for (Library > Playing Techniques). These can have an effect in playback, so you could have an LV playing technique that depresses the sustain pedal, and a damp technique (using the “bullseye” symbol) that lifts it again.
I have had a quick look at the first handbells notation guide I found via searching (here) and all the special symbols are included in the Bravura font that Dorico uses by default (here).
I’m delighted you went searching for the handbell notation guide! I’m disappointed (but not in you) that you found the British version and not the American – I went looking for it and didn’t find it. I’ll have to mention that to the American handbell guild.
The British description of LV is the same as the American – let the bells continue to vibrate until told to stop or until the next LV marking.
Thanks for also finding the handbell techniques symbols. I see the “bullseye” described as the damp symbol.
I’ll take a look at how to set up playing techniques, but probably not in what’s left of today. And I’ll be back on the forum with more questions.
Feel free to ask whatever questions come up. I have notated handbell scores in Dorico and have found it works just fine. Like anything else, it does take time to learn how each software does it.
Here’s a starting point for a handbell template that has all the HB symbols as playing techniques (under Pitched Percussion). There is also a used bells section (thanks @dan_kreider for helping me with that a long time ago). As I do not have a handbell library that supports anything but regular ringing, none of the symbols do anything so far as playback goes. You’ll need to assign (or create) an appropriate endpoint for playback (and probably a playback template for your HB library). This template will not playback as the playback template is set to silent. Handbells.dorico (576.5 KB)
My “LV” and “R” markings were expressions in Finale as both instructions to the performers and instructions to Finale playback. After coming out of XML what are they now in Dorico? I see the markings but may have to change them as I work on the score and would need to know what they are. If I’m using a different system in Dorico I’d want to delete all these old markings.
In Dorico for the most part you don’t have to know what tool things were created with in order to delete them. Some things (such as ties, articulation marks and fingerings) are properties of notes, so have to be handled differently. But most text you can just select and Backspace.
