How to notate cadenza - extra beats for soloist only

Hi folks, how do I approach notating the following example?

I need the meter to be 3/4, but the soloist has a cadenza after the third beat (effectively, the soloist has an 8/4 bar and the rest of the orchestra a 3/4 bar).

I typically approach it by making it into a hidden mega tuplet — which in this case would be a 6:1 quarter note tuplet.

2 Likes

I normally write the cadenza exactly as it’s written. Then I delete bars and hide unwanted time sigs.

Thank you!

I entered this as a 6:1q tuplet and hid the outer tuplet. So the next question would be: is there a way to make this not look so… squished?

1 Like

You have many options depending on what the final look needs to be, and depending on context:

  • you can make the cadenza notes size cue or grace note sized (from the Properties panel, in the Common section)

  • you can reduce the Space Size in Layout Option/Page Setup, for the whole layout

  • you can create a system break, so that your system is not overfull (you can see the percentage of fullness of systems and music frames in Engrave mode)

  • you can create Note Spacing changes at specific rhythmic positions, for that system, with some bar set with a smaller NSC value (when not so many notes) and some bars with more notes, set with a bigger value (the value that you may want to change is Default space for crotchet/quarter note, in the NSC dialogue). You can also put NSCs mid bar at any rhythmic position needed.
    Put also one NSC at the end of the passage, to restore the Layout global note spacing (that you set in Layout Options/Note Spacing

2 Likes

Personally, I’d go with @Christian_R 's Note Spacing Change suggestion – first put one at the end of the cadenza (resetting to “normal” note spacing) and then one at the beginning of the cadenza to something that looks good (I’m not aware of any “magic tricks” here other than using your best judgement to get a decent look).

2 Likes