In the upper staff, there is an 8th note, a quarter note, and a dotted half note connected by a slur. In the lower line, this is solved with a dotted quarter note and a dotted half note. Both divisions were done by the program. I actually thought that I had set it in the notation options to be like the line below…
What can I do so that the same division appears in the upper line?
Thanks for hints!
The difference is caused by the rests in the upper staff, though without talking to one of my colleagues in the team I can’t tell you exactly which note grouping rule is in play here. For the time being you can use Force Duration to get the result you want in the right-hand staff.
I did a few experiments on this:
(This is, of course, with my default notation options, other settings may be available.)
Bar 1: Regular 6/4 time signature (which duplicates your result).
Bar 2: Regular 12/8 time signature (which gives your desired result).
Bar 3: A hidden time signature entered as [3+3+3+3]/8
Bar 4: An attempt to do something like the sign post in bar 3: 6/4 (e, 3+3+3+3) which doesn’t work.
Is there a way to add a meter with a different denominator to the printed time signature in the first bar, or when there’s a change in time signature that also needs to be displayed?
Fractional meter definitions e.g. [1.5+1.5+1.5+1.5]/4 would seem to be a way around this, but on my quick test, aren’t accepted now.
Indeed, you can’t use fractional numerator values at the moment, though it would be useful in some circumstances. You can certainly use a hidden time signature that provides the right beat grouping, but you can’t display one time signature and have another one actually in force: you’d need to use Force Durations for the bar(s) where the appropriate time signature for display is used, until the hidden one comes into force.
This is an issue with the rather frequent use (we might say misuse, but frequent) of 6/4 to mean half-again-4/4, or 3 × 2/4, i.e. 3/2 beamed in halves, conducted in quarters.
I use this often. It occurs frequently in Beatles songs (e.g. “Across the Universe”) and I think of it as an extension of the 4/4 bar, therefore not wanting to imply any accent at the start of an added 2/4 bar. Of course, these occur in the middle of the song and can be handled perfectly in Dorico.
