Notes not breaking at half-bar

Does anyone know why I get this notation…

…when I have set this option?

Did you have Force duration on?

You have to change the second option to define the appearance before a rest. Don’t know what the option is called in English. I’m on German.

No. With force duration I can get what I want, of course, but I’d like to know how to get it by default.

Do you mean this option?

If so – that’s not what I want. It’s OK for Dorico to use dotted notes before a rest, but not for a dotted note to straddle the middle of the bar unevenly.

I’m not sure what combination of options you have that are producing this result: for me, I find that using the default notation options, I get the expected quarter tied to an eighth across the third beat division in 4/4. Do you want to cut down your score to a minimal example and attach the project here so we can look at the options?

Sure! Thanks. Here it is.
rhythms.dorico.zip (553 KB)

It is the ‘Notes starting on a beat followed by a rest in the middle of a beat’ option: if that’s set to ‘Split at beat boundaries’ then you’ll get the expected result. But I’m sure you had your reasons for changing that option, so I imagine that one way or another you’ll be using Force Durations from time to time.

Ok, thanks. I see what you mean. So, to check I understand this: Dorico offers a choice between two options:

  • If ‘Split at beat boundaries’ is set, dotted crotchets are notated as crotchet-tie-quaver even when they don’t straddle the half bar. This provides for the alternative convention described on Gould p.167 which she says “some composers prefer” when a note is followed by a rest (in contrast to the standard described on p.166).

  • If ‘Notate as a single note’ is set, this implements the standard convention that notes that don’t straddle the half-bar are consolidated, BUT then also generates the unconventional result that notes can straddle the half-bar unevenly (which Gould p.166 rules out).

It’s not a problem to use Force Durations to correct these situations, of course. But for my money, Dorico is making a small mistake here. Switching on the alternative convention (for when a long note is followed by a mid-beat rest) incorrectly overrides too much of the standard. It seems to me that rejecting the alternative convention still shouldn’t allow a long consolidated note to straddle a half-bar unevenly.

Very minor issue. Not worth dying in a ditch over. But worth raising, all the same.

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