I'm working on an edition of some 1549 bicinia, need to make a circular staff

[AliceBrinRenken]

Is it possible in Dorico to make a staff bend into a circle for a 15th-16th century canon?

[dspreadbury]

No, it’s not possible to do this in Dorico. You will need to use illustration software for this.

[AliceBrinRenken]

Thanks, Daniel! Does Bravura have the narrow-S with two dots under it, used to indicate the start point for the voices in a canon?

[Andro]

FWIW it is possible to make a circular staff and set notes on it in Lilypond. Fairly advanced, but can be done. You can write code for Lilypond to make it do virtually anything, but not for the faint hearted. Nevertheless, the capability exists.

[dspreadbury]

@AliceBrinRenken

Does Bravura have the narrow-S with two dots under it, used to indicate the start point for the voices in a canon?

I’m not sure it does. I’m not completely sure what it looks like. Can you share an image of it?

[AliceBrinRenken]

It’s the little squiggly thing above the 11th note after the time signature

[rubberfingers]

I wonder if chatGPT can create the Lillypond input file from musicXML?

[judddanby]

Actually, I believe the signum congruentiae up and down symbols are available:

https://w3c.github.io/smufl/latest/tables/medieval-and-renaissance-miscellany.html

[benwiggy]

@rubberfingers

I wonder if chatGPT can create the Lillypond input file from musicXML?

I very much doubt it. Most of the “can you make…” tasks I’ve set it have been disastrous.

And it can’t even accurately summarize the Dorico Help pages into useful advice.

[rubberfingers]

I’ve had some success with copilot on programming tasks, but it can take much prompting.

[AliceBrinRenken]

Thanks!

[benwiggy]

@Andro

FWIW it is possible to make a circular staff and set notes on it in Lilypond.

Even the famous example of circular staves in Finale is achieved entirely graphically, using custom lines and placed objects, rather than as “music, which is then curved”.