From what I can learn online, previous versions of Dorico have not been able to accommodate polymeter – only burdensome workarounds. Can anyone who uses polymeter in Dorico please tell me whether Dorico 3.5 can now notate polymeter, and - if so - how?
Some examples of the type of polymeter I have in mind:
Simultaneous 3/4 and 6/8 (ie, simple hemiola)
Simultaneous 6/8 and 4/4 (8th notes in common)
Changing meter (eg, 6/16 followed by 7/16, followed by 2/4) in one part with different changing meters (eg, 4/4 followed by 3/2) in another.
Completely different subdivisions of the same bar duration – eg, 7/8 in one part and 4/4 in another, with both bars having equal duration.
Finale can accommodate very simple polymeter (ie, different divisions of the same bar), but one must use purely graphic elements as workarounds for anything more complex (eg, suppressing time signatures and barlines per part while adding these as graphic elements). If Dorico 3.5 cannot do real polymeter, can one similarly use graphic elements and various notational suppressions to create graphic workarounds?
I would dearly like to leave Finale once and for all, but only for a product that can either go beyond Finale, or can at least equal it but with more reliable performance.
I’m sure support for polymeter will be added in the future. When precisely is anyone’s guess, as the team rarely announces new features before they’re released.
3/4 against 6/8 is a piece of cake, though. It certainly doesn’t require anything more complicated than inputting a staff-specific (independent) time signature for either the 3/4 or the 6/8.
In fact, any situation whereby the note values match up (an 8th/quaver on one staff takes up the same amount of time as an 8th/quaver on any other staff) is quick and easy.
It’s only situations where an 8th on one staff equals some completely different note value in another staff - e.g. your 4/4 vs 7/8 scenario - that tuplet workarounds are required. Such a workaround looks cumbersome when you read an explanation, but it can be achieved extremely quickly:
Hmm . . . does this mean that one can use any staff-specific independent time signatures, so long as the bar durations are the same? And, if so, does Dorico know how to beam these differences?
It’s slightly more complex than that, in that you need to fool Dorico into creating a real time signature that actually displays a different number of beats.
Let’s say you want a 4/4 against a 7/8.
You put in a real 4/4 that is global.
You then enter a staff-specific 7/8,8 time signature - this displays as 7/8, but the “,8” tells Dorico that you want an 8 beat pickup (anacrusis) bar.
Finally you enter a 4/4 time signature (either global or staff-specific; it generally doesn’t matter) at the next barline, then hide that.
Again, that looks like a lot of steps but it’s actually <10 seconds work.
Two associated questions, if you (or others) have a moment:
Am I wrong in understanding that only those staff-specific time signatures that use bars of equal duration can work, using this technique?
Does Dorico allow the suppression of time signatures and bars, and then the use of manual, graphic elements to VISUALLY create the signatures and bars one requires, if those signatures result in bars of unequal duration?
I’m not sure I entirely understand your most recent questions, but I’ll have a go:
If you want one stave in 4/4 and another stave in 3/4, where three bars of 4/4 matches four bars of 3/4 (with a barline adjoining every 12 beats), this requires nothing more than some time signatures.
If you want one stave in 4/4 and another stave in 3/4 where all of the barlines join, you also require some tuplet hackery.
If you want one stave in 4/4 and another stave in 3/4 where, let’s say, the bottom stave’s 3/4 measures actually take up 2.5 beats of the top stave’s (4/4) measures, you require basically the same sort of tuplet hackery.
Time signatures can be hidden.
The time signature glyphs (font) can be used to insert text purely graphically, if necessary. With judicious use of pickup bars (or manual irregular bars) this shouldn’t often be necessary.
Yep, I believe all of this should work in 1.2.
The anacrusis is just a quick way of telling Dorico that you want a bar that contains a different number of beats to the time signature it’s displaying.
