Voice two note placed incorrectly
In the accompanying image, I show (in the first measure) a sequence of notes in Voice 1. In the second measure, I show what happens when I add a Voice 2 note: a dotted half note against a series of eighth notes. Whereas I would expect (and wish) for the dotted half to appear to the right of the voice 1 eighths, it instead appears to the right (and forces the voice 1 sharp even further right!)
Any ideas how to fix this? Demo of bug.svg
Comments
Select that dotted half and in Inspector change the chords's horizontal offset. See attached score and
![Demo_of_Bug.png]( "Demo_of_Bug.png")
, with horizontal offset of that chord being set to 4sp.
Strange enough only certain pitches are affected, or rather some pitches are not affected:
If that doted half note is a B4 or Bb4 (on the line above the highest not of the chord in voice 1), or not higher than the bottom not of that other chord everything is looking fine, only in between and above or looks bad.
Haven't found anything like this in the issue tracker, and the latest development builds do behave exactly the same in this respect, so it might be the time to officially report this as a bug.
In reply to Select that dotted half and… by Jojo-Schmitz
I tried that, and if I only had a single line of music, it might work, but as it happens, I have multiple lines, and now the eighth note chord is not aligned with the eighth notes in other staves. Demo of bug part 2.svg
In reply to I tried that, and if I only… by dancurry61
Then move that 8th chord to the left, and the dotted half to the right by a smaller amount than in my previous example, see attached
FWIW, the default behavior is not a bug; it's actually consistent with the usual recommendation, which calls for the downstem note to go to the left in case of overlap (here the F# in the upper voice overlaps the A in the lower). The presence of dots as well as accidentals as well as the repeated "A" makes this more subjective; here different editors do things differently. I agree an exception to the usual rule is warranted in this particular case, but anyhow, doing it manually is the way to go at least for now, until someone can state a really clear and objective rule to cover these exceptional cases.
In reply to FWIW, the default behavior… by Marc Sabatella
I'm not sure what usual recommendations you're speaking of, but I have literally NEVER seen professionally typeset music laid out this way. Placing the dotted half to the right of the eighths allows the sharp to be directly adjacent to the f-notehead to which it pertains, and it allows the stems to be closely aligned. Every score I have ever seen places downstem notes to the right of upstem notes.
In reply to I'm not sure what usual… by dancurry61
Look more closely at professionally typeset music - the rule I mention is followed pretty universally. As I said, it applies to overlapping voices - where the downstem voice crosses above the upstem. Again, the special situation of the dot and accidental might be reasonable cause for breaking this rule, but there can be no denying the rule exists in the general case of overlapping voices.
Here is an example from the original edition of Clair de Lune:
Here you see the downstem note overlapping the upstem, so the downstem goes to left. The dot is handled differently, however. As I said, there is a lot of subjectivity in how things are handled once dots and accidentals becomes involved as well. I couldn't find an example of this exact case to compare, but I'll bet if you find 10 different examples, you'll see half a dozen different solutions.