This kind of slur that goes to “nowhere” indicates that the sound must be prolonged, usually using the pedal in piano music. It indicates that it must be left to resonate, normally for an indefinite time until the next musical passage requires a change of pedal.
This has been used by composers such as Ravel and Debussy, among many others. Takemitsu’s page (wich I attached) is a nice example.
Right now Dorico doesn’t easily allow this without doing magic tricks in Engrave mode; since any slur or tie must go from Note A to Note B. In Sibelius you could just place it there (on Note A, without no need to have a Note B) and leave it hanging (but I have to be fair and say that overall the way Sibelius handles ties and slurs is primitive compared to Dorico).
I myself tend to use these a lot when writing for piano and sometimes other instruments that have resonances (harp, mallet instruments, even open strings on strings), I’m sure many people would appreciate the hability to do this too!
Dear Alvaro,
These “laissez vibrer” slurs have been requested for quite a long time now on this forum, but it’s always nice to see that this request is a real need for quite a number of us. Hopefully, our favorite developers know about that and have it on their plans, and you can bet it will be implemented the best way possible
A propos:
The possibility of showing only the end of ties, un peu à la française, would also be wonderful, it tidies up the picture sometimes. I attach a classic example of «end only» ties, and an example where Ravel in my modest opinion should have used these ties.
I found a workaround.
I went to the glyph library: https://w3c.github.io/smufl/gitbook/tables/lyrics.html
And copied the Wide Elison.
I then went back to Dorico in Write Mode and pasted it as a music text (using shift X or Cmd X)
I increased the size and made it bold in the dialog box.
In Engrave mode, I placed it where I needed it and unchecked the box “avoid collision”.
It sure isn’t the neatest way, but creating a note in a second voice attaching a slur to it and hiding the note isn’t always an option (like in a drum set part).
Cyril, no need for workarounds. This is an old thread. Laisser Vibrer ties were worked in a few months ago. There is an option to tick them on in the properties panel and they can be adjusted in engrave mode depending on your needs.
Woah! Thanks! That’ll save me a lot of time!
I’m looking into the YouTube videos of Anthony Hughes about Dorico 2.2.
I downloaded the update without realizing all what’s new!
Thanks a lot! Dorico rocks!
