I’m engraving a complex piece for viola soloist and orchestra. Although I have selected the option of having system objects also above the strings, nothing is drawn if only one staff appears.
In the score, there are a lot of passages where the viola plays with woodwinds, brasses and percussion (but no other string instrument) and it is extremely important to indicate the tempo marking for the soloist too.
I searched the forum but I was able to find nothing about it. Is it a bug, a limitation or I’m missing something obvious?
Hi mati.
I just opened your file and this is how it looks :
I suppose it’s not that way on your computer and honestly, I don’t know why! But the tempo markings are there even if the string section is not present.
Maybe I misunderstood your problem, and you want the system objects to appear also above the viola staff ?
You caught the problem… Yes, I need the tempo marking above the viola staff, too.
But it only seems to happen if the family (strings) has more than one staff.
Presumably the tempo mark will appear in the Viola part, since tempo marks are system text. I’m not sure why you need the tempo restated above the viola what appears to be the full score.
Well, Derrek, I understand your point of view, but I also understand that a user is entitled to want the system object to appear above the soloist staff on a concerto… I think that problem has already been raised (it does ring a bell, and I have experienced that problem myself), and hopefully a solution will be provided in the fullness of time
I would love to see more flexibility in this area\ even if I would not use it for this particular purpose.
(Does one usually put a concerto soloist below the top of the system? I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen a full score of a concerto.)
Placing the soloist above the string section is a standard.
If in optimizing the systems, Dorico sees, as in this case, only one staff for the strings, it ignores the system objects settings, even though the strings are selected. I therefore understand that the lower staff of a score is excluded. For example, if you add to the viola part a momentary extra staff, the tempo mark appears again.
If this is a desired design, there seems to be nothing to do about it except to wait for an improvement in this area.
Thank you for the info on concerto format. So the soloist goes pretty much where vocal lines would go in a traditional score (although I put voices at the top for theater music).
Perhaps there should be a checkbox to add system text specifically above a concerto solo instrument, although I cannot imagine the programming complexity that would entail.
Dear Derrek,
I like your idea. There could be a toggle in the instrument card or in the staff name editor to indicate that this is a soloist instrument, and add that category to the list of the system object targets… Hey, I’m not saying it’s easy ! Just dreaming
At the moment, system objects really do appear above the first bracket (or brace, technically) for a given instrument family, but if there’s no bracket, then no system object will appear. This is intentional, but it’s not always what you want, of course. I don’t know whether it would be possible to consider setting the option to show a bracket for a single instrument; this would also have the effect of showing a bracket on your solo instrument as well, which may also not be what you want.
I found this post when searching for a solution to a current problem. I’ve added a Theremin to my score, and the system objects are not appearing above it even thought I’ve checked the Electronics box for showing system objects in the Layout Settings (I’ve actually checked all of the boxes just to see if it would help). I did move the instrument to the bottom of the score and I’ve relabelled it so I’m not sure if that is causing the problem. I’ve also added a bracket since it is a single staff group. Still no system objects though.
If you could cut down your project to just a few bars and attach it here, I’ll be able to tell you for sure, but is it possible you have another instrument further up the score order from the Electronics family? Dorico will only show system-attached items above the first bracket in a given family.