Square bracket support for dynamics and automatic popover parsing

Dorico
1

Dear Dorico Team and Community,

I would like to request an enhancement for adding brackets to dynamics, specifically square brackets `[ ]`.

Currently, the Properties panel has a “Parenthesized” option, but as the name implies, it only supports round parentheses `( )`. To use square brackets—which are essential for Action/Effort Dynamics in contemporary scores or Editorial Additions—we have to manually type them into the prefix and suffix properties.

It would be a massive workflow improvement if Dorico could support the following:

  1. Expanded Bracket Options: Add an option in the Properties panel to choose between round parentheses and square brackets.

  2. Automatic Popover Parsing: When typing dynamics directly into the `Shift+D` popover with brackets ❨e.g., typing `[f]` or `(p)`❩, it would be great if Dorico automatically recognized them and applied them to the prefix and suffix properties ❨or toggled the relevant bracket property❩.

Thank you for your continuous hard work and for considering this request.

2

This would be great indeed.

I’d like to add that, if you type those into the prefix/suffix fields, too much padding is created around the dynamic marking.

For my curiosity, instead: what are “action/effort dynamics”?

3

For my curiosity, instead: what are “action/effort dynamics”?

Some composers use parentheses or brackets around dynamic markings to indicate that the dynamic refers not to the audible loudness but to the physical effort required to produce a particular timbral or expressive quality. In such cases, a performer may be instructed to “play with the effort of fff” while producing an extremely soft sound. This distinction between physical intensity and perceived loudness is often described as subjective dynamics, effort dynamics, or action dynamics.

I have usually used the term subjective dynamics, but Gemini suggested “action/effort dynamics”.

4

I think ‘effort dynamics’ might be a good description for some stopped notes on the horn, which one may want to be as strong as can be managed, but which are never likely to be genuinely very loud. I wonder if [ff] could perhaps be an effective dynamic marking for those those(?).