Merge matching note durations in different voices
Similar to the "merge matching rests" feature which can be applied to a single staff, I think a "merge matching note durations" feature would allow for a cleaner-looking and more compact score (Fig. 1). When note durations line up between voices, stems and flags could face the same way, and beams and articulations could be merged. This merging seems to be the standard in all of the orchestral scores I have studied. The only exceptions would be when both parts play the same notes (Fig. 2), lower and higher voices cross over (Fig. 3), or each voice has a differing articulation (Fig. 4). In all of these cases, the stems would once again have to face the opposite direction.
While I could just move the notes from the second voice into the first, it makes the generation of individual instrument parts from different voices, or transferring voices between parts a lot more difficult and time-consuming. This is because I would have to manually seperate notes in some—but not all areas, as some rhythmically-unique parts usually remain in the second voice. This inconsisent use of 1st and 2nd voices renders the "explode" tool, or even the PruneStack plugin of no use.
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Comments
I understand the problem you describe. The difficulty I can see is how to generate individual instrument parts from the merged single stave. But I think there is a reasonable workaround that achieves the same thing but from the other end.
You can then make the individual Flute 1 and Flute 2 staves invisible in the score. They will, however, remain available for part extraction.
The following simple example may make the process clearer.
In reply to I understand the problem you… by SteveBlower
Thank you for your detailed workaround. While this will be useful for smaller orchestral works, I can see difficulties with software performance with all of these extra staves for longer orchestral works. For example, my Symphony's entire 1-hour score can already barely run and be edited in MuseScore.
I suppose I could also need only two staves per part instead of three: one for the combined rhythms for engraving, and the other with the bottom two staves combined as separate voices for parts creation.
In reply to Thank you for your detailed… by Camilo Aybar (…
I think the software performance issue (if any) would be minimised by leaving the implosion steps until all notation has been entered. This will also avoid problems of keeping the "score" and individual instrument parts in sync. Think of the implosion as the first step in score and part formatting.
In reply to I think the software… by SteveBlower
I do remember having to actually make each part in a separate file becuase MuseScore simply could not run with 21 individual parts attached to the score, so I do realise that what you suggested would not have been an extra step anyway. Thank you again.
Looking again at your post. There is a further case that you did not consider. This is an extract from Weber's 2nd Clarinet Concerto (2nd movement).
You will see that there are several opportunities to share stems that are not taken - I have ringed some of them in red. Here it is clear that there are two separate tunes in each of the instrument pairs and they really need to be kept separate. Sharing stems would make this much less clear.
In reply to Looking again at your post. … by SteveBlower
Right. I can see that there are too many exceptions for a "combine matching note durations" feature to be feasably implemented.
In reply to Right. I can see that there… by Camilo Aybar (…
Indeed, I'm afraid that's likely to be true. But it's absolutely something that in an ideal world, someone would figure out a way to do that did the right thing automatically most of the time but also made it reasonably easy to override.