I’m transcribing a 19th-century score, and there is the following notation in a Violin staff:
It’s the black notes on the same stem as white notes. They looked scaled down in the part.
Anyone know what it means and how best to notate it in Dorico?
“Not my area.” Thanks
In my previous playing life, I would treat the black notes as super quick grace notes. Since those are open strings, they’ll continue to ring, but the notation is just differentiating double vs quadruple stops.
Very common notation and I’m curious to know how to do it in Dorico as well.
I suppose the easiest thing is to create a Notehead set with black noteheads, optionally reduced in size.
The notes would still play as minims, though that’s not a problem here.
I’d do it with a second voice, in which I would add a hidden notehead scaled at 100%, to preserve the stem thickness and the horizontal spacing.
Voice column index 0:
Ha! I just played with that as well - works great.
Haven’t ventured into that realm of Dorico yet. Eventually I will.
That’s cool. I need to bookmark this.
Tim
Nice. Interestingly, I didn’t have to hide the notehead – the white note stayed ‘on top’. But probably best to be safe…!
CQFD.
There is always an option somewhere that allows you to avoid tinkering with something.
So: let’s thoroughly explore all the options (engraving, notation) that we know by heart. Written test in three weeks. 
And well done to Charles, who has once again demonstrated his mastery of the software.
As a cellist, I agree with this interpretation. Multi-stop chords must be rolled one way or another (often from the lower strings to the higher strings), so I think this is the composer’s way of saying treat the bottom notes as a grace and get the more important notes (on top) quickly and on beat.
But even without this notation that’s how I would interpret it too haha. I guess the idea is to ensure there’s no slow rolling chord.
