Unmeasured Music

As a liturgical composer and arranger I am constantly dealing with unmetrical music ie music without a set time signature.

At the moment this is an absolute pain to enter into MuseScore due to the constant need for fiddling with the actual time signature property of each measure.

Would the data structures of MuseScore allow for unmeasured entry mode in which you could set the measure information after you have entered the notes and not before??

This would save having to constantly count syllables to make sure you have enough beats in the bar.

I am aware of the workaround to create an initial time signature longer than necessary, however this is still unsatisfactory as you still end up counting beats to make sure you are entering the actual time signature correctly.

What I have in mind is a mode where you could enter as many notes as needed by the line of text you are working with, and then terminate entry by adding a barline. MuseScore would then work out the actual time signature for the bar automatically. Entry to this mode could be achieved by the selection of an Unmetered time signature from the time signature palette for the required number of bars.

Doing this would give MuseScore a definite edge over Finale, which still doesn't have direct support for this kind of music, merely having a kludge which hides metrical information. Finale incidentally is currently just as much a pain for entering this kind of music. Can't speak for Sibelius, but a look at their website suggests there is no direct support for plainchant etc.