Bracket-shaped slurs in Baroque music
In French baroque harpsichord music, one sometimes finds slurs shaped like diagonal brackets along with the typical arc-shaped ones; see the attached screen shot. Is there any way in MuseScore to use the diagonal ones? (If anyone is curious, the example comes from ‘La Villerey’ in the third Ordre of D’Agincour’s harpsichord works; I have also seen the bracket-shaped slurs in Couperin.)
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Comments
From what I see, all of these brackets are on beamed groups of notes. You can make these into triplets (even though it is not necessary for proper notation) and set number to none in the inspector. To enter it you will press
5 . ctrl+3 a c f
for the first one I see (assuming it's on the treble clef). You will then click the triplet bracket, open the inspector (F8) and change the number display from auto to none. You can then adjust the slant on the bracket if necessary to make it look correct (just double click the bracket and drag an end point). If the bracket is above and you want it below select the bracket and press v
As long as the total duration of the "slurred" notes can be entered with the duration of a single note, this is simple. If you run into one where the duration cannot be entered with a single note, ask and someone can help with that.
In reply to From what I see, all of… by mike320
Thank you, Mike. Your suggestion works fine in terms of appearance for the first two examples -- but won't it mess up the meter (the piece is in 6/8 time) -- although I suppose I could solve that by adjusting the measure properties manually. In the second measure (both hands) we have cases where the notes are not beamed together. There are also many instances where a grace note is slurred into the following (fourth measure, right hand), which I think would fall into your category of duration that can't be entered with a single note.
All these situations are handled fine with MuseScore's usual slur function -- it would just be good to have the proper bracket shape.
In reply to Thank you, Mike. Your… by redux02
The meter will be fine. 3 1/8th notes = a dotted 1/4 note, that's why I said the triplet is not normally needed. MuseScore realizes that your triplet takes 3 1/2 beats rather the normal 1. If you change the number to a ratio you will see it should be 3:3 rather than 3:2, which is the normal triplet.
In reply to The meter will be fine. 3 1… by mike320
My fault, sorry -- I missed the period after the '5' the first time I tried it. Changing 1 1/2 quarter notes into a triplet is not something I ever would have thought of, but it does work!
In reply to My fault, sorry -- I missed… by redux02
It's quite unconventional but it's the best workaround there is for MuseScore in this situation.