the word 'simile'

Dorico
#1

i only could find topics about simile marks…but I’m asking myself if there is an easy way so that you can just add the word ‘simile’ as a kind of playing technique and your staccato points are continued to be played without having to write them again and again. That would make the score less ‘busy’.

Of course I could hide the articulations or I could create a second staccato playing technique and sign it with ‘duration’ instead of ‘attribute’.

But I ask myself if there is a standard ‘simile’ within Dorico which applies to any articulation used before and kind of overrides articulations which are signed with ‘attribute’.
Or maybe this would be a nice thing for an update, though I guess it is complicated to programme…

#2

Hello Peer,

I’ve come up with this issue in the past. My approach for notational purposes was to create a “simile” PT with the “below” attribute and the expression text style, because if normally affected the dynamics.
However, I find the “simile” marking a bit troubling, since it should only be used when it’s crystal clear what it refers to. Does it refer to articulation? Dynamics? Should we place it before a slash region? (I often do). When does it cancel? Does the marking to above or below the staff? (before a slash region it might well go above). In my case, I tend to use small variations in my music, so unless it’s clear that the music is not going to change, I rather choose to write out everything.
I know this doesn’t solve your problem, but it’s just my two cents on why I think it’s a problematic marking and its use cases are quite subjective and prone to human interpretation. However, that’s my point of view and a developer might have a different idea. I would love to have this somewhat implemented too.

#3

In “classical” score notation, as a performer I would take it as applying to all the performance instructions that were in force about dynamics and articulation, and it would be cancelled by any new instruction - except for “common sense” situations where the music changed to something where the old instructions didn’t make any sense.

But most computer software doesn’t have enough AI to “think” like that - not yet, anyway.

#4

It would be really nice, though, to have a simile behavior like the cresc. marking : it’s written in one place, but has a length and therefore, even in its “cresc.” form, we have a proper playback (even if it is not as precise for the reader than a cresc… or a hairpin). I wish it would be possible to have simile as a prolongation of playing techniques, another type of line that would not be a line but simile.

#5

For playing techniques, “sim.” is already included as one of the supported extension types, but that doesn’t help with things that are not playing techniques, such as articulations.

#6

Ok, great! Thanks for pointing this out, I don’t think I’ve ever used it, because I didn’t know it was there…
Of course it would be nice to have that for articulations too, but I know they’re a different beast in Dorico, so it might be quite time consuming to implement something like that (that can be written as text object).

#7

What I would do, in the case of the OP, is to add a technique/direction with the desired articulation (staccato). Hide it, and insert at the same position a “simile” indication with no playback effect.

The issue I have is probably a bit more complex, since I have to say that subsequent notes are all with the natural harmonic sign. And I don’t think this can be added as a direction.

EDIT: Probably the best solution, in my case, is to create a hidden technique/direction selecting the natural harmonics patch.

Paolo

#8

I can’t find it. Can you please help. Thanx.

#9

It’s “Continuation type” in the properties panel.

#10

For the full steps, see here.

#11

What if I need both? For example a pedal marking for piano, where I want a sign to show when to lift the pedal, and a simile to repeat the same pedalling going forward (see attached image).
Screenshot 2020-11-23 at 20.27.37.png

#12

I use Lucas’s method, as explained in the second post on this thread.

#13

Today I’m editing a score that uses a lot of this. It came to my mind that it would be a great feature if we had a simile region that hid PTs and/or articulations and/or dynamics, much like a slash region that hides everything in the score without actually deleting it or muting it for playback purposes. Maybe the elements to be hidden could be selectable via the properties panel.

1 Like
#14

There’s actually already a simile marking available. Some playing techniques can have a duration (meaning you can apply it once, and lengthen its duration). The continuation can be a line or… a simile marking.

#15

True, I’m aware of it. I was thinking about a more comprehensive solution that masked all the other markings. Slurs too, which I had omitted before.