Time Signatures
I have a choral score with two vocal staves and piano accomp. The first vocal stave is in 2/4, with the others in 3/4. How do I achieve that marking. (Strange-sounding, I know, but it actually works really well!)
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Comments
Use a local time signature.
See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/4/time-signatures#Adding_a_local_time…
In reply to Use a local time signature… by Jm6stringer
Thanks so much! Now all I need to do is to work out how to stretch individual bars so that it all fits properly within the time signatures and ends together at the end of the piece!
In reply to Thanks so much! Now all I… by Subtlevox
"Now all I need to do is to work out how to stretch individual bars so that it all fits properly within the time signatures and ends together at the end of the piece!"
Using a Local Time Signature does not change the duration of a bar - it only changes the number of beats to be fitted into the standard duration of the bar in the main time signature. So the barlines always remain aligned for all staves within a system.
If you want to play around with different time signatures which all maintain the same duration of a beat, then you're on your own. That could indeed result in barlines not aligning across all the staves of a system, And AFAIK such notation is not supported by MuseScore... [EDIT] ... without some horrendous workarounds such as changing bar lengths and selectively hiding barlines!
In reply to "Now all I need to do is to… by DanielR
Yes, Daniel - you're aboslutely right. There is no solution in Musescore for this problem. But thanks for your input.
In reply to Yes, Daniel - you're… by Subtlevox
It can be done but is very laborious. Here I have played around with 6/4 bars and inserting barlines but it's so easy to make a mistake that takes time to correct.
In reply to It can be done but is very… by underquark
"It can be done but is very laborious."
So true!
There are so many disadvantages to this notation that I can't see it gaining any traction.
If you add several different time signatures, your piece really needs to be broken into chunks where the denominator of the "master" time signature is divisible by the denominator of each time signature used. The fragment below used a single measure in 48/4 after the pickup measure:
![Same_beat_duration_in_multiple_time_signatures.jpg]()
In the example above I used time signatures of 2/4, 3/4, 4/4 and 5/4, which would have needed a time signature of 60/4 (divisible by 2, 3, 4 and 5). But I was lazy and used 48/4 (divisible only by 2, 3 and 4), which left the penultimate measure of the 5/4 (Violoncello) two beats short (see attached score).
Because the size of the single measure has to be very large, the content has to displayed in Continuous View.
The time signatures have to be inserted manually as separate symbols for the numerator and the denominator.
Because the duration of the measure will vary from stave to stave and because you need to use a single large measure initially, you cannot use automatic measure numbering. And the measure numbers will vary from one stave to the next - not helpful during rehearsal?
While preparing this example, MS 4.1.1 crashed with horrible frequency. So as a "proof of concept" I have to admit that my example score is an abject failure!
In reply to "It can be done but is very… by DanielR
Unfortunately, there are examples of these in the wild. There are a few shown in Elaine Gould's "Behind Bars". She also give some good advice about the dangers of using such notation.
Perhaps a feature request could be raised for this, but it will take some deep thought to define how polyrhythms using incongruent time signatures should be specified in Musescore, even before the technicalities of implementation are tackled.