Non-MuseScore orchestration question (answered!)
Any help in understanding an unusual scoring issue would be appreciated.
In the attached Otello excerpt 1 (from Act II of Verdi's Otello), notice the augmentation dots in measures 2 & 4 of the viola & 'cello. Since the piece is in 3/4 time, the dots result in too many beats in the measure.
I'm guessing that one of two things are intended:
One- the tremolo in the viola & 'cello is supposed to match the sextuplets in the violins. (They're not marked as sextuplets, but that's obviously what they are, just like the triplets in measures 1 & 3 of the viola & 'cello.)
Two- the augmentation dots are misplaced staccato dots.
Or, something else that I haven't thought of.
I don't know if this is related, but notice the contra-bass uses 32nd note tremolo marks, while 16th note marks are used in the other instruments.
Otello excerpt 2 (which is the next page) continues this pattern, although varied slightly.
Any ideas, so that I can accurately reproduce the composer's intentions when I enter the piece into MuseScore?
ANSWER:
Number one is correct: A "normal" quarter note or half note would indeed be too many beats, but a quarter or half *in the context of a tuplet* would have the correct number of beats, and would align with the sextuplets in the other instruments. It doesn't help that the score doesn't mark the tuplets, you have to figure it out from the context.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Otello excerpt 1.PNG | 195.82 KB |
| Otello excerpt 2.PNG | 266.03 KB |
Comments
My guess is 1. If so, it's a poor decision IMHO, and you should just use regular quarter and half notes (as is the case in the contrabass part).
In reply to My guess is 1. If so, it's a by Marc Sabatella
Agreed, it's not very good engraving practice.
For what it's worth, MuseScore can replicate the "as printed" score:
>Enter a quarter note, and CTRL+6 to make it a sextuplet.
>Select the first note of the sextuplet, and press 5 to make it a quarter note (although it's a "sextuplet" quarter, not a normal quarter).
>Press dot to make it a dotted quarter. From there, you can easily make three dotted quarters in a 3/4 measure.
>From the Tremolo palette, select the two-beam tremolo (or whichever is appropriate).
Use the same technique if the source note is a half note, instead of a quarter note.
I don't know if the audio playback will be reproduced as desired, but if not it's unlikely to be detectable in the context. If it is, invisible notes in a unused voice will work just fine.
Thanks for your quick response,
I think it's One, but the poor decision is the absence of the number 6 above. The rhythm should exactly line up with the sextuplets.