I have two quarter-notes tied over a barline. The note is a natural harmonic signified by a little circle over the note. The tied note after the barline also shows the harmonic circle, which is non-standard. If I remove the tie, I can delete the harmonic on the second note, but if I then reinsert the tie, the superfluous circle returns. I know I can fake it by replacing the tie with a slur, but is there a way to make this render correctly without that kludge?
Dorico is following standard engraving practice which is that tied notes all require the harmonic notation.
With respect, I’ll say that among the first 5 cello works pulled at random from my library, engraved by Breitkopf, Carl Fischer, and Belaieff, it took me 4 minutes to locate 5 instances that didn’t follow that rule; and although I’m an old guy with a somewhat faltering memory, I can’t remember ever seeing any instance that did in a 60-year career as a professional cellist. Artificial harmonics, of course, are always repeated as long as they last. I will admit that those harmonic indications would often be regarded by performers as fingering suggestions. But while editing my response I just looked at a recent Peters edition of the original version of the Tschaikovsky Rococo Variations which had the composer’s indication of harmonics on some tied notes with only one harmonic circle. That doesn’t look like an outlier to me…
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It is common engraving practice these days, but you will find many instances that don’t use that rule.
If you use the harmonic circle playing technique from the playing techniques pane under “common” instead of using the natural harmonic attribute on the note, you’ll just get the little circle that doesn’t repeat.
EDIT: It is mentioned in Gould pg. 416: “It is useful to repeat the circle on a tied harmonic – or, in a score, at least as a reminder at the start of a new system – to confirm that the harmonic should not transform into a stopped note”.
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