In many scholarly/critical editions of Renaissance music, sustained notes are not written with ties across barlines as in modern notation. Instead, the last note in the bar is simply written as a longer (often dotted) value that notionally extends into the next bar, and in the following bar the corresponding position in that voice is left empty – i.e. no rest is written there, so from a modern point of view the bar looks rhythmically “incomplete” in that voice.
Is there any way to achieve this notational style in Dorico?
I’ve attached an example image below to illustrate the kind of Renaissance notation I’m aiming for.
Note that you can easily alt-click those tuplets signposts, providing you press Q (qord mode) before, so that it does not replace the existing notes, but gets added to them.
An unfortunate consequence of using this notational style for music with lyrics is that when I am singing the words my mental flow is interrupted by the barlines now placed between the staves. Maybe it’s just me?
May I show an alternative solution - just for interest!
The Early English Church Music series published by Stainer & Bell uses “ticks” of this sort, rather than Mensurstriche, which I agree obstructs the reading of the lyrics. Though I have to say that unless you’re familiar with this style, reading is more difficult, because the beat is less clearly defined.
And of course the question of whether you do the same thing at system breaks, where it’s even more confusing; or do you use ties “as normal”, thus negating the whole “original notes” concept. (And as soon as there are ligatures, coloration, or perfection, you won’t be representing the notation in a ‘similar’ form anyway.)
