Vertical alignment issue
In this example, (1) the quarter notes (Voice 2) at the start of bars 2, 4 and 6 are not aligned vertically although in bar 8 they are, and (2) the double whole notes (Voice 1) at the start of bars 2, 4, 6 and 8 are almost aligned vertically but not quite. Is there a way to fix this, or is it a bug?
Comments
Your voice assignments / stem directions are off - well, at least, they are the cause of the discrepancy. Your bottom staff in particular appears to have the voices (and thus stem directions) backwards for those bars. Bar 8 is different because there is no conflict between voices in the top staff like there is in the others, because the voice 2 note is a third below the voice 1 chord instead of a second or unisoon as with the others.
Basically, it's not necessarily the case that the quarter notes specifically should align. The alignment rules in music notation are more about voice assignment, and stem direction, and intervals.
In reply to Your voice assignments /… by Marc Sabatella
Thanks for your reply. I checked the voice assignments and they seem consistent: the double whole notes are all Voice 1 (sustained outer voice), and the quarter notes are all Voice 2 (moving inner voice).
Re issue (2), I have now flipped the stems of the quarter notes on the bass staff, and the vertical alignment of all the double whole notes is now perfect.
However, re issue (1), I see that this can be avoided by moving the voices more apart (e.g., moving the top note of Voice 2 down as in bar 4 above, or omitting the bottom note of Voice 1 as in bar 6 above), but as I don't want to rewrite the music to suit the software (!), is there something else I can do to make the software line up the notes better, or is there a bug (i.e., should the software automatically line up the quarter notes in bar 1 above)?
In reply to [inline:Screenshot 2024-07… by ozmusicman88
It’s hard to say much from just pictures - the actual score would be better - but offhand, it’s not obvious that the alignment is wrong given what you have written. If the default were to align the quarters in that first passage, then the breves wouldn’t be aligned anymore. When there are conflicts or overlaps on one staff but not another, something will end up not being aligned. If you wish to change which note isn’t aligned, you can adjust the horizontal offsets to achieve the look you want. As it is, the result shown above makes more sense to me than any alternative I can think of.
In reply to It’s hard to say much from… by Marc Sabatella
Thanks for your further reply: "you can adjust the horizontal offsets" was the clue I needed. I wasn't aware of this option, which I have now used to achieve the look I was expecting, as above.
In reply to [inline:Screenshot 2024-07… by ozmusicman88
I’m curious what has set your expectation here. That looks just wrong to me, as there is no logical reason for the offsets on the bottom staff. Is there some particular professional edition you are copying from that did this? Not saying it is objectively bad, but it does look strange and non-standard to me. But I guess I can see why in this special case it might appear to make sense to break the usual rules.
Note that somehow your accidental got disassociated form the note in the last bar - that at least you definitely should fix.
In reply to I’m curious what has set… by Marc Sabatella
Oops, I didn't notice the stray accidental at the start of the last bar, now fixed ... thanks.
Regarding the vertical alignment of the voices, my expectation was not based on a printed edition (this is my own composition) but on a principle that notes that sound (or ties that count) at the same time should be aligned vertically. Ideally the double whole note chords and the quarter note chords at the start of bars 2, 4, 6 and 8 should be aligned vertically together (because they happen at the same time); however, because this is not visually ideal (because some of the noteheads would overlap), at least each voice should be kept vertically aligned across both staves.
In other words, in bars 2, 4, 6 and 8, in the same way that the software has automatically shifted the first quarter note chords to the right in order to avoid overlapping with the double whole note chords in the treble staff, it should (I think) automatically do the same thing in the bass staff (which I had to do manually here) in order to keep the voices vertically aligned.
In reply to [inline:Screenshot 2024-07… by ozmusicman88
Yes, note that sound together should align - unless there is a conflict, like note a second part, or notes in different voices that overlap. Here, the rules of notation call for the notes to be offset in fairly specific ways. While there is some room for subjectivity in how those rules are interpreted, I would say that unless you're a professional engraver and understand the rules very well and exactly which situation might call or breaking the rules, you're better off sticking to the defaults. As it is, your notation looks wrong to me - the quarter notes align which is good, but they don't align with the breves, which is bad. It makes it looks like the quarter notes come in late. The rules of notation exist for a reason, and by breaking them here, you're creating a situation that will be confusing to anyone reading this.