I may be being stupid and ignorant, but you can’t play F#4 as a natural harmonic on any of the strings of a violin, can you? At least not with any of the first several entries in the harmonic series. But this is not my strongest suit so I may be making a fool of myself here… (Wouldn’t be the first time!)
I guess it depends whether you define “touch F#4 on the open D string” as a natural or an artificial harmonic. NotePerformer plays it correctly at pitch F#6 if you notate it as an artificial harmonic, but natural harmonics are notated at sounding pitch.
Notating only the sounding natural F#6 gives no information about how to produce it. Notating the high pitch only seems to suggest using the highest node, i.e. where a stopped note would have the same pitch. But touching this high node may not be intended or even possible.
There are n-1 nodes on the string where you can produce the n-th partial, and often it is necessary to indicate which node is needed in a certain context (the sound will hardly differ, by the way, depending on instrument and skill of the player). In this case, not only F#6, but touching F#4, B4 or F#5 will also work.
Displaying the open string as ‘base note’ for a natural harmonic is one possibility (as in Rob’s first example), but it’s better to use some other string indication (sul D, III). Personally, I would omit the base note if it’s an open string, because it suggests a kind of double fingering, which is confusing. In Rob’s third example, I’d prefer a diamond notehead instead of the regular one, like in mountainmusic’s examples.
I don’t like being the guy on the forum that says you’re wrong 
so I apologize.
Indeed, it is not a common way to play this natural harmonic, but I came across it a few times while engraving examples for my students. This F#4 on the D string (D4) of a violin is the equivalent to a “touch” third, but the string is open so it’s just positioning the finger on the third instead. I say this from asking my wife, who is a professional violinist, but also wanted some published proof so I checked Adler’s orchestration book (see attached screenshot).
Dorico playback and interface behaves properly for the white diamond notehead, as you can see in screenshot 1. The bug is in screenshot 2, for the black “diamond notehead” (which I prefer, so it matches more closely the look of a quarter note). This is where 1. the playback doesn’t work and 2. when I try to click on “String” in the Notes and Rests Properties panel, it won’t allow to me choose a string.
Thanks again for looking into this.
After consultation with my more intelligent colleagues, I can at least tell you why Dorico works the way it does, and why I was confused. We implemented the black diamond notation intending it to be used for guitar, where it denotes the sounding pitch of the harmonic, rather than where you touch the string. And of course touching the D string on the violin at the same place you’d finger F#4 doesn’t produce that sounding pitch. So Dorico has a specific understanding of the black diamond notehead, which is incompatible with your desire to use it to denote the place you touch the string rather than the resulting pitch. I think perhaps the correct solution for this, in the longer term, is to add an option to allow the white diamond notehead appearance, which is the one that we implemented to handle natural harmonics at higher nodes on string instruments, to use a filled or unfilled notehead as appropriate for the written duration of the note itself.
I used custom playing techniques for the example
(kind of variant of Gold (2011), p.418),
maybe someting like this could some day be supported as a property option?
Not sure if this has been covered but is there a way to get Dorico to input touched major 6th artificial harmonics? For example on cello’s C2 string you touch A2 and it’s the same as touching the E2, producing the 5th harmonic, the major third E4.
Currently I can only get the 5th harmonic as an artificial harmonic with a touched major 3rd.
Same question for other higher harmonics such as the 7th (which you can get with a touched tritone), and even higher ones like the 11th.
I thought this might be what the ‘node’ option is all about but it doesn’t seem to affect anything.
Cheers
Nick
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did you specify the string it should be played on?
On the violin it is clear that it can only be the G string.
On this occasion I would like to stress how AWESOME it would be to either
a) have default PT that indicates strings for bowed strings and sets the string indicator appropriately. The problem with the current situation of designing my own is that they override other playing techniques like pizzicato
b) have an option next to the string indicators of „show indicator“, which then adds the correct representation for bowed strings (as it is with guitar). Of course here then there should be the possibility to chose style (Roman numerals or „sul x“, but maybe that could be left in the engraving options.
The only issue I see here is to indicate duration. Maybe, it could behave like PTs but then my solution b) is maybe just solution a) again 
I’m attaching two images, one from my composition, showing the B harmonic, which I would like on the G string, but the only option available is the same fingered pitch on 4(E1), which sounds at the unison with the stopped note at the same location - wrong octave for my piece.
Also, an image showing the same harmonic from my first example (touch major 3rd on the lowest string) on the bass. Dorico will not let me assign a string, and it does not play back as a harmonic, even though this location only exists in one place on a 4 string bass.
After more experimenting,I can get “white diamond” noteheads to play back for touch 5th and touch 4th natural harmonics on the G string, but not the touch major 3rd, for which playback is silent. Other notehead styles do not play back as harmonics, and limit the options for string assignment.
I can get touch major 3rd (F#, C#, and G#) to playback correctly with “white diamond” noteheads. I’m using HSSE3 samples. I think part of the problem with the touch major 3rd on the G string is the samples don’t go high enough.
The written notes for touch major 3rd harmonics are also touch major 6th harmonics, sounding the same pitch as the touch major 3rd harmonic on the same string. This should be an option under string assignment, as touch major 3rd B on the G string (sounding B) is touch major 6th B on the D string (sounding F#.)
A good test of Dorico’s ability to deal with double bass harmonics would be the natural harmonics passages in the Hindemith Sonata. Also any of the Viennese concerti: Vanhal, Dittersdorf.
Side note: I’m using crazy custom key signatures in my composition, and they are so easy and work so well in Dorico! Thank you!!!
So usage of the white diamond notehead is correct for bowed strings. Did you try playback with note performer?
I just tried it on my machine and the B natural harmonic on the G-String works for me in playback with Noteperformer as expected. This seems to be a problem with HSSE3 it seems.
Your other concern is holding true: Dorico only recognizes the lowest natural harmonic at the moment. I hope this can be addressed in the future.
I always supposed the “Node” function could help with that, but until now I didn’t figure out how.
Has this been asked before? I would like to notate some harmonics with three notes:
- the open string (black round note)
- the fingered node (white diamond)
- the resulting pitch (small courtesy note, like the one used for trills)
I’ve sometimes found, in the literature, the third element replaced by a small stemmed note, either as part of the same “chord” with the other two elements, or as a separate voice. These two are easy in Dorico (using a cue-sized note in the chord, or a second voice).
I would like to add myself to the ones asking for the fingered sixth.
Paolo
Hello,
How does the value of the “Node” work?
I have tested it on violin with NotePerformer as follows:
- the second and third partials of artificial harmonics and
- some natural harmonics
However, I do not find its influence. Could I currently ignore it?
I think node also only affects guitar, for sure it doesn’t change anything with bowed strings.
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