Hi there, I’m composing a piano cyclus with 24 pieces. The Title is “24 Arten, eine Melodie zu singen”, and every piece (flow) has an own title. I want to show the name of the instrument only on the first accolade of the first flow “Präludium auf C”. Because all flows are pieces for piano, showing of the instrument name in the later flows is obsolet. So I switched the button in the layout options to “Notenzeilenbeschriftungen an folgenden Systemen: Keine” (“Staff labels on the following systems: None”). But it didn’t work. Where is my mistake?
To satisfy my curiosity, could someone tell me what the common English music equivalent is to the term accolade, which seems to be something produced by translation software from a German term I do not recognize?
(“System” perhaps?)
Brace ? or Accolade ?
The term is also used in French (accolade).
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I think, „brace“ means the vertical graphic element left of an „accolade“. An „accolade“ is a number of systems bonded by a brace.
I think. „brace“ means the vertical graphic element left of an accolade. An „accolade“ is a number of systems bonded by a brace.
In French, this is an ‘accolade’ (see image). In English, Brace ?
It’s also the gesture you make when embracing a friend, or the one a head of state makes when meeting another head of state (provided they get on well). But this is another story, as said Kipling…
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In your pic you marked the “brace”, not the “accolade”. How I said, „brace“ means the vertical graphic element left of an „accolade“. An „accolade“ is a number of systems bonded by a brace.
I’ve shown what we call “accolade” in French.
As for the rest, I’ll leave you to debate the English thesaurus.
I think you mean a number of staves joined by a brace.
So is the term “accolade” synonymous with “system”, i.e. it contains all the staves joined by the systemic barline at the left-hand margin? Or does it refer only to the staves that are joined by a brace, i.e. just the two staves of a piano or harp?
It’s not a term that is often used in English (in reference to music notation, at any rate), and when it is used by English speakers, I always have to ask whether they are talking about the overall concept of brackets (which includes both straight brackets and braces), only braces, or systems.
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Yes, an Akkolade is the whole system consisting of all staves connected by a systemic barline. It’s a common term frequently used at our university as well as in many publications, e.g. in “Hals über Kopf”, the German edition of “Behind Bars” by Elaine Gould.
Confusingly enough, an Akkoladenklammer (accolade bracket) is the curly brace joining two piano staves, for example.
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Yes, it contains all staves joined by the systemic barline at the left-hand margin, that’s right.
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See, I would find this additional term useful in the band world, where it is common to group instruments by family with their own through-barlines and braces, but a systemic left barline for the entire ensemble. In discussion, I can now replace “entire ensemble” with the more descriptive and simpler “Akkolade”.
Assuming I’m understanding this…
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So, “akkolade” seems to be a specific German word ; but this term in French and English has not the same meaning. The mystery is solved and Hercule Poirot can go and drink a chocolate. 
“Those French, they have a different word for everything!”
–Comedian Steve Martin
(I suppose the French could say the same about those of us in the U.S.)
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Indeed, and I don’t dare tell you what “Brace” means in French; I’d be accused of being naughty… 
