I’ve learned here that there is no way to change accent placement or appearance (correct?), and that the workaround would be to create a Playing Technique that looks like an accent. A few questions:
(1) How do I do that? I’ve tried to create an accent by typing in “>”, using Finale Maestro font, Default Music Font, and a bunch of others. It just looks like a greater-than sign, not like an accent either in Dorico or Finale (RIP). Bravura doesn’t even come up as an option. Is there a way to somehow import the graphic (glyph) or text that stands for an accent in Dorico?
(2) When I first started using Dorico (this week), I chose Finale Maestro as the default font. Is that causing problems? There was no indication of what’s recommended at the point in the setup. Also, does the current shape of the accent come from the font, or is it a graphic?
(3) This might be related: Under Notation Options, the accents displayed as examples look different from what I’m getting in the actual score. I’m only allowed to upload one media item here, so below is what my accents look like – sharper and longer.
Welcome to the forum, @Grayberg. Perhaps we can take a step back and understand the underlying requirement you have here? What started you down this journey of trying to create a playing technique to stand in for the accent articulation in the first place?
@Grayberg also posted the same question to the Facebook group, where’s there’s already been some discussion.
@Grayberg - when you post the same question in multiple places, please can you say that you’ve done so, and ideally edit your posts to include links to the other place? That way it’s easy for the nice people who come to help you to see what advice you’ve already been given. It saves everyone a lot of time and reduces the number of duplicate or even conflicting responses you’ll get. Thanks!
Got it – will do!
Edit: Also, haven’t received any useful advice on the Facebook group just yet.
My reason for wanting to adjust horizontal placement is that, depending on the context, the default placement can look visually unbalanced. On Finale, I adjust articulations manually throughout any score, as I feel quite particular about it. Here, when the accent is placed above the stem, it can look as if it’s too far to the left. You can see that effect somewhat in the screenshot I posted previously, on the first two high notes, though it is more noticeable when there are lots of fast notes. Compare to the below from Prokofiev, which looks more intuitive and correct to my eye: the widest part of the accent starts at the left edge of the note head.
This clarification (that you want the accent centered on the stem, rather than the notehead, when placed on the stem-side) is useful and wasn’t in your Facebook post - perhaps explaining why the responses haven’t thus far been focused on that.
I’d say what the OP wants is the accent left justified to the edge of the notehead (so that it does not “move” with upstem/downstem notes and they line up vertically between staves…)
In Library > Music Symbols, you can change Accent above and Accent below by deleting the existing glyph, adding a space character (U+20) followed by articAccentAbove (U+E4A0) or articAccentBelow (U+E4A1) in the font of your choice, and increasing the X-Offset of the accent until its widest part starts at the left edge of noteheads. Here is an example using the Finale Maestro font:
Right. At the same time, this is just the first instance of the issue I’ve run into. In general, I’d like the freedom to adjust articulations horizontally, though mostly accents and staccatos. This is something I did routinely on Finale and it helps make the scores look the way I want them to look.
Thanks – you example looks much better, for sure, and I am currently trying to do what you suggest. Just to quickly add: the ability to move articulations horizontally would still be important, and would be good to hear from someone whether this is definitively not possible on Dorico, and if so, what’s the best workaround.
So I’m trying to follow your instructions but am a bit lost. I’ve deleted the glyph by pressing the trash can icon. For font, I chose Finale Maestro. Then, I suppose to add the space character and articAccentBelow requires me to select “SMuFL” first, and to find this combo from the “Range” drop-down menu? Or is there a way to type this in under “Unicode”?
I’ve been looking at the drop-down menu for a while and can’t find these. It is not in alphabetical order, so I’m not sure how one would go about choosing something from it.
Any further advice would be appreciated!
The articulations that appear in the left panel in write mode cannot be moved horizontally by repositioning them in engrave mode. But they can be moved horizontally by changing their appearance as described below, using the accent articulation as an example.
In Library > Music Symbols, search for Accent above, delete the existing glyph and set the font to Finale Maestro. To obtain the space character, click on Unicode in the right column, enter U+20 in the From box, press Tab twice, and double-click the empty “glyph” just below the word From. To obtain the articAccentAbove glyph, enter U+E4A0 in the From box, press Tab twice, and double-click the leftmost glyph below the word From. Then set the X-Offset of the accent to 2 and click OK to close the dialog.
Repeat the steps above, searching for Accent below and using U+E4A1 to obtain the articAccentBelow glyph.
If you have used Library > Music Fonts to change the SMuFL font to Finale Maestro, the instructions I have given previously are unnecessarily complex. In Library > Music Symbols, search for Accent above, set the X-Offset of the existing accent to one and click OK. Then repeat for Accent below. I’m sorry I didn’t try doing it this way sooner.
Many thanks, these definitely look way better now!
The reason I’m not clicking “solution” is in case anyone else finds the OP and is also looking for a way to move articulations horizontally. Ideally, I’d like to be able to do this case-by-case, and I hope this feature will be added at some point.
@johnkprice If you don’t mind me asking you a related question (or to anyone else reading): just as an experiment, I’m trying to create an accent under “Playing Techniques.” For whatever reason, Finale Maestro font doesn’t give me an accent here, but a larger-than symbol.
The accent character is a glyph in terms of Dorico. Select Glyph in the Type popup.
Klick Edit, the pencil symbol above General
Thanks, great!