Liturgical responses with MuseScore 4 - how to hide brackets at the start of a system?

• Aug 13, 2024 - 13:45

I am new to MuseScore and as a learning exercise am trying to layout some liturgical responses which have somewhat unusual requirements. I have so far got as far as the following but can not work out how to get further.

In the following picture, I do not wish the items in red to be displayed. I also want the SATB instrument names to only be displayed next to the system where they first come in, not at the start of the score.

I have attached my mscz file. Can anyone suggest how to achieve this?

Thanks,

Max

PS There have been similar questions in the past and the answers have helped me to get this far, but I wondered if more is now possible with MuseScore 4.

Attachment	Size
responses .mscz	26.79 KB

Comments

bompstable

• Aug 14, 2024 - 09:48

I've since discovered the following:
- I can hide the double bar lines by toggling their Visible property
- I can move the instrument names by selecting them individually and using the right arrow key to shift them to the right (using ctrl+right shifts them faster).

My score now looks like this:

I still cannot get rid of the large bracket on the left of the score. Toggling Visible for this also hides the one on the Answer part.

Is there any way to do this?

Attachment	Size
responses.mscz	55.11 KB

bobjp

• Aug 14, 2024 - 17:00

I got this to work in your score. It might not work in a larger score. But worth thinking about. Good practice, anyway.

Take a screenshot of the large bracket on the left.
I opened it in the default photo viewer in W11, and removed the background.
Save as png.
Drag the saved png into the score. Drop it when you see a + sign. Delete the OE bracket.
Resize and position the new bracket.

Can be saved in a palette for later use.
new bracket.png

bompstable

• Aug 14, 2024 - 22:38

Thanks, that's really helpful!

I am only trying this as a learning exercise but it would maybe be useful if there was a slightly more built in way to do this at the moment. Maybe I should post in feature requests?

bompstable

• Aug 15, 2024 - 11:12

After more experimentation, I've had better luck using system breaks to put the responses on separate lines and using horizontal frames to create the required horizontal space. This solves the bracket problem and also gives better control over part names (and bar numbers if required).

Remaining issues:
* I do still need to manually shift the SATB part names over to the right (using ctrl+right on each part name).
* I can't work out how to make the cantor part begin with a bar line to the left of the clef.

I do wonder if it's a bug that musescore doesn't automatically put part names next to the start of the system.

Attachment	Size
responses2.mscz	24.16 KB

bobjp

• Aug 15, 2024 - 14:35

I think the part names are where they are because the Frame is in the way. You could add then as text in the frame. That's a lot of trouble, though.

The Cantor part is now a separate staff. The scale you are working at is very large. I suggest that while you are figuring this out, that you work at a smaller size. I think it would make spacing easier.

Part of the problem is that I think MU4 is concerned with playback. You are concerned with layout. You may have seen music set up like what you are trying to do. But that's in a book, not notation software. Keep at it.

vallieplushie

• Aug 15, 2024 - 19:22

Using system breaks like this is your best bet! For the bar line, a neat solution is to add a thin square system bracket to just that staff. This will add the bar line. Then, just hide the bracket.