Hey everybody,
I am going to be entering this piece (by another composer) into Dorico. The composer wrote some unusual meters. I wonder if anyone can think of any way to replicate these in Dorico. Thanks for any help!
It’s not possible to write 3 1/2 / 4, I think.
Of course you could just write 7/8 but, that’s not what you want probably.
EDIT: You could do this though:
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I was able to do this in a Project. Fortunately, I wasn’t using any 7s or 9s so I repurposed them by editing them to show 1 1/2 and 2 1/2, Then using irregular bars was able to achieve it. See attached file.
Fractional Meter.dorico (911.7 KB)
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Oh how interesting!
I kind of wonder anyway … is this type of metering common in contemporary music? And if so, why? The conductor of the piece – whose red markings you see in the score – actually changed things for his eye’s benefit… notice what he wrote in the circled passage.
If performers actually need to substitute it for something they can work with, maybe just do it normally and explain the composer’s method in the preface…?
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It’s never been common, but you find it at least as early as Ives.
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Good stuff about the possibilities in Dorico here:
OT but I’m far more disturbed about the rhythmic notation for the first lyric ‘the’
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I hear you. The more full phrase shows that I think the composer wanted to soloist to think in triplet terms since there were specific notes written in that rhythm later in the bar. I still don’t know if it’s a great idea to notate it that way.
Do conductors expect this kind of metering? Or is it better to write in more standard meters?
I think you’ll get the full range of answers from a bunch of different conductors.
As for should you use fractional meters? If you can make a case that it’s helpful then why not. I remember talking to some of those crazy Bulgarian wedding-band musicians and was amused that they thought of a very fast 7/16 as ‘3 and a bit 8’ - one, two, threeee, one, two, threeeeee. They then lightly teased me as to how 7 could possibly be relevant when it was far too fast to count. Maybe 3 and a half 8 would be meaningful if I had to transcribe one of those 7/16 dances.
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I think the answer is shown in your example - the conductor clearly added the red meters!
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Here, with hidden time signatures and the composer’s entered as System-attached text (using MusGlyphs, just as a trial) vertically positioned (Engraving Options) 4 spaces above with Use default position (instead of Avoid collisions) to align them.
Can’t say that I think much of it visually, though perhaps with greater finesse of the system text font choice, etc., it could be made to look more “time signature-ly.”
As for your musical question, is this a composer you’re in contact with to converse about the question? And if there’s a conductor lined up, could they have a conversation? I’m inclined towards Ben’s intuition; perhaps a good compromise would be to use regularly-notated “regular” meters in-line, with the composer’s originals above as system text???
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Ah: that’s a nice solution! And easy to achieve.
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Maybe another idea is to make the composer’s time signatures as graphic files in another app, then put they in as graphic frames. (Super time-intensive if there are as many of these throughout the piece as the opening bars suggest.)
Hey thanks! Great experiments. And I appreciate you trying to get this to work. This composition is by my former college composition teacher, who has unfortunately passed away. His colleague for decades has offered to help me edit his scores.
I feel like what the composer was trying to indicate with “3 1/2 over quarter note” could possibly be better expressed as a 2/4 bar then a dashed barline, then a 3/8 bar. I’m thinking about the conductor as well as the singers/instrumentalists.
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I’m with you (and others) on that! So perhaps Ben’s suggestion is the right one: a portion of the performance notes or other preparatory material that shows how it was originally done (maybe even as a scanned facsimile) to honor the composer’s approach, but the score being more readily readable/performable.
