I guess this question is meant directly for mr. @dspreadbury and I hope it is proper to ask in this way.
I have a rather complex use case (lots of improvisation… I can further elaborate if needed) where it would be useful to have lowercase rehearsal marks. The overall purpose for this is score clarity and I assume this might be the easiest way forward, but I might be wrong. My constraints:
I’m already using encircled uppercase letters sometimes followed by numbers as an improvisational motif “naming scheme” (those were the fonts available/selected when I started the piece): the A motif, B1, F4, G12 etc. This way, just by the names I chose, I can directly suggest to the players and the conductor motiv relationships, improvisational structure etc.
I’m already using measure numbers. In standard 2/4, 4/4 etc. measured sections, they’re expected and quite useful, but not particularly so in improvisational sections. Nonetheless, I still think they’re useful and should be included.
As rehearsal marks, I’m using a “literary” scheme as to better align the narative logic with the music (and to avoid subjectively unaesthetic AAA, BBB etc. type of marks). For example, I’m using: I.a, I.b, I.c… all the way to XI.a, XI.b… XI.e where I. II. III. etc., are “Chapters” (almost attacca sections or flows but a single movement nevertheless). Lowercase rehearsal marks in this setting would more clearly differentiate from roman numeral Chapters (avoiding somewhat strange joins like I.I, V.I etc.) and from previous uppercase motif names.
Of course, I would never use lowercase rehearsal marks in a normal setting, but here it might be a valid solution. Is this a proper use case and could Dorico allow this in engrave options?
The Properties Panel provides options to reconfigure Rehearsal Marks with custom indexes and prefixes and suffixes which should cover the options you seek.
Having the Development Team reprogram the Rehearsal Mark utility for what seems a niche application may not be the best use of their time at this stage of program development.
AFAIK, you can use any string, including lowercase letters, in the suffix of a rehearsal mark (in the properties panel), so indications like ‘I.a’ etc. shouldn’t be a problem. Dorico can’t intelligently number using Roman numerals, so you’ll have to calculate the index number for the first character (say, X=24). Or do you also want to use things like ‘a’, ‘b’ etc. on their own? I don’t think Dorico has that option, the first (or only) character is always uppercase.
(ninja’d by Derrek)
Ligeti’s Hamburg Concerto uses both uppercase and lowercase rehearsal marks. To get this to work in Dorico, I used System Text with a border to make the lowercase letters, and used the uppercase letters in the usual way… Not fancy, but it worked - I hope this helps.
I have played around with the rehearsal mark tools before I eventually implemented this system: standard letters with “I.” added as a prefix. This works perfectly lacking only the lowercase aspect. I will play around again to see if I missed something. Thanks!
Having the Development Team reprogram the Rehearsal Mark utility for what seems a niche application may not be the best use of their time at this stage of program development.
I don’t know, maybe… Personally, adding lowercase marks doesn’t strike me as too complicated, but I’m not a programmer and certainly don’t know what adding such a functionality would break inside of Dorico. I just want to signal necessity and maybe it can be implemented. Thanks!
