Prefatory Staves

• Apr 28, 2021 - 15:01

Hi Everyone

Just hoping that someone out there may be able to help me with creating prefatory staves in musescore. Prefatory Staves are used when transcribing early music that shows the original clefs, key signatures, and note pitches at the beginning of the first system.

I've been able to create what I want by using a vertical frame, and by hiding various elements such as bar lines, rests etc, but I can't seem to find a way to hide or delete the system bracket from the prefatory staves without removing it from the 'main' system. I've included a graphic to illustrate what I mean.

Example copy.jpg

I've circled in red the bracket I want to remove, without removing the other bracket.

Alternatively, is there some other way of doing prefatory staves? Thanks for your help in advance.

Comments

• Apr 28, 2021 - 15:33

I assume you mean you used a horizontal frame to separate that initial measure. There is currently no way to hide the bracket just for that measure. Two workaround I can think of. One would be to paste in an opaque white graphic into the frame and position it over the bracket (perhaps playing with the "stacking order" to make sure it covers what you want). The other would be to actually do that whole initial measure using an image. Turn off brackets, snap a picture of that measure using the image capture tool, then delete the measure and paste the image of it into the frame, again positioning it as desired.

BTW, be aware there is a built-in ambitus feature, see the Lines palette. So you don't need to add notes to that measure manually.

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• Apr 28, 2021 - 22:57

Hi Marc

Many thanks for getting back to me. Both great ideas sound very workable - I'm thinking that your idea of using the image capture tool might be the easiest way forward. I've enclosed an example of what normal practice in a critical or urtext edition would look like for your information.

Example 2.jpg

The ambitus is a very very handy feature - makes it so easy to place the pitch range of the music. In the past using other notation software I had to create a note graphic and add each note individually for all parts!

Would be great if a 'prefatory staves' feature could be devised for a future update as another tool for early music specialists??? I've only started using Musescore recently (previously a Finale user) and am very impressed with its ease of use and features. Thanks again for your help - really appreciated.

Michael

Attachment Size
Example 2.jpg 220.27 KB

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• Apr 29, 2021 - 00:04

It's certainly possible a feature could be developed just for this, but my sense is, no two people would agree on exactly what it should look like. So I think it's really better off being done as a series of steps where you have control over each - like how big the gap is, how wide the measure is, who the note is displayed in it, what text is displayed - and of course,e whether the bracket shows. Right now it's mostly straightforward except the bracket. A fixed width you could set in measure properties for the measure itself would also be welcome, not just for this but other purposes as well. Hmm, I guess also a custom sizing if you want to reproduce this look. it's doable with staff type changes, but here also, a simple scaling option in measure properties could be nice.

Could you file a Suggestion to the issue tracker (see Support menu above) regarding the bracket visibility?

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• Apr 29, 2021 - 12:20

Thanks again for your help Marc. Yes you are right no two editors would agree on how they want prefatory clefs to look in their editions. Myself I'm quite happy with what I was able to achieve using the horizontal (got it right this time!) frame and hiding various elements. If only there was the option to hide the first bracket in the element inspector as well - would be great if this could be added in a future update.

I've filed a suggestion to the issue tracker as requested - hopefully I've filled it out correctly. Thanks.

Michael

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• Apr 29, 2021 - 14:41

Is it normal for the ambitus staves to be slightly smaller than the main staves on the page?

I've been following this discussion to see if I can usefully replicate or comment on means to do this.

A transparent (almost) graphic with a suitable vertical rectangle in white or a close colour could be placed over the bracket which is not wanted, and it appears there are layers available in MuseScore - and even more in the experimental versions which are initiated from the command line. The overlay graphic could even be crafted so that it covered the bracket almost exactly - if that was wanted, or indeed any other unwanted symbols and marks- while leaving other features to come through the transparent layers.

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• Apr 29, 2021 - 23:24

Thanks for the great ideas Dave. Yes it perfectly normal practice for prefatory staves to be smaller than the main music, it depends mainly on the editor. Personally I prefer to leave them the same size as the main music. Although the separate staves can be used to indicate ambitus, generally speaking ambitus should be located on the main music. Prefatory staves are use to indicated the original clef, the original time signature and the original note value and pitch of the first note, as indicated in the original source or manuscript - all of which may have been changed editorially to create a modern performance edition.

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