Hi All,
I’m having some difficulty getting Dorico to notate certain natural harmonics when there are two alternatives.
Basically, I can’t notate the third harmonic in the example as a natural harmonic a perfect fourth above D. I can only notate it as an artificial harmonic, as shown in the first image.
If I try to notate it as a natural harmonic, Dorico only gives me the solution shown in the second example (i.e. as the octave harmonic on the violin’s G string).
I have no problems with the first two natural harmonics shown in the example.
Is there a way to make Dorico switch between different harmonics when there are two possible solutions? I can’t specify the string for natural harmonics, whereas I can be precise when notating artificial harmonics.
“I can only notate it as an artificial harmonic, as shown in the first image.” This is a trivial distinction, because the lower, round solid note is not forced to be played as stopped with a finger. It can be played as the open D string , as well as the stopped note, D-just-above-middle-C on the G string (which might be desirable depending on what follows). Without specifying the lower, round solid note, Dorico has to decide between the diamond note being played on the open D string or on the open G string (your two alternatives), because these produce different sounding pitches. Somehow, it decided you wanted the diamond note to be played on a string (open or stopped) having the pitch D just above middle C.
The second problem is what Dorico came up with in your second example. This has to be a bug. The round solid note can not be coincident with where you touch the string to produce the harmonic note. And why the parentheses?
Alternatively (and I don’t know how this would play back), you could enter just the pitch G, force-change the note head to become a diamond, and put “sul D” above the passage.
I will tell you, the F sharp and F natural harmonics are quite difficult to hit cleanly, and will be very soft. I would prefer to play the F sharp harmonic as artificial (first finger on F sharp, fourth finger as a harmonic on B, which also allows me to tune this to something other than the just intonation you get with a natural harmonic), the F natural diamond note as a D diamond note on the A string, and the G diamond note (as you currently have it) on the D string.
My post is intended to draw attention to a possible issue with harmonic notation when there is more than one available option.
Dorico’s harmonic notation features is very useful, and while I find the method for choosing artificial harmonics very clear, natural harmonics can sometimes be notated in different positions. What I do not understand is whether Dorico provides a way to choose between these different possibilities.
The example is not meant to represent an actual musical passage. I wrote the natural harmonics in thirds simply to show that Dorico allows me to notate them as natural harmonics by indicating the note to be lightly touched with a diamond notehead.
To be more specific, in the new attached image I can select the perfect-fifth harmonic as a natural harmonic, but apparently I cannot choose the perfect-fourth harmonic at one quarter of the string length; Dorico only notates the equivalent harmonic at three quarters of the string length. Alternatively, it interprets it as an octave harmonic on the G string.
So my question is: is there a way in Dorico to choose between different possible natural-harmonic fingerings when using diamond noteheads? In simple cases like this, merely being able to specify the string would be enough to resolve the ambiguity. Or perhaps I’m simply missing how to choose between the different natural-harmonic options when more than one is available.
This passage was written for viola. I’ve just discovered that if I write the same thing for violin, I can notate the perfect-fourth harmonic without any problem (se two attached images)
You can use the Notes & Rests > String option to choose the string for the harmonic. Because there are three open strings with a G natural harmonic on viola, I think Dorico chooses the C string as the default. Setting that string option to 2 (D4) produces the result you want
I must say that the way it is conceived it’s a little complicated because, in order to define the harmonic, you need to go on another part of the panel.
Since we are here: when I select the string, nothing appears on top of the note, so to indicate the string, let’s say with IIIc, one has to create a String Playing Techique, isn’t it?
