Accidentals on Note Entry

• Mar 28, 2025 - 19:40

Not sure if there's a name for this in music theory or Musescore's settings/preferences.

I'm transcribing a composer's score.
Normally, creating a new score, I might select a key signature, say C Major. When I begin note entry, if I hit a Bb, the note appears as B with the flat accidental marking. Kool.

Supposing instead the composer specifies F# as the key, but his score shows no signature and he adds the accidentals to every note that needs one throughout. The first chord is A#-F#. If I press A#, a Bb appears instead. That's going to happen for most of the notes I hit, like D# will get Eb.
I'm not the composer, not my fault!

But is there a way to tell Musescore what my intent is so that I get notes from the F# scale perspective and not from the C Major perspective?

Seems like my alternatives are to struggle through this in C Major with the right tones appearing but the notation wrong and I have to correct each one, or I select F# as the key, do the note entry and remove the key signature when I'm done.

Thoughts? - RNW

Comments

• Mar 28, 2025 - 22:41

Hehehehe. As I said, not my composition. It's "Pilgrims' Hymn" from the opera "The Three Hermits" by Stephen Paulus, with a subtitle "for 8-part Mixed Chorus, in Key of F#". Copyright is 1997. Our director apologized and said he knew all the sharps were scary, but it's a pretty typical choral piece melodically and harmonically, just written without a key signature. I'm still working on it, but I applied the F# signature. Crossing fingers as to how Musescore handles it when I reset the signature to C Major. - RNW

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• Mar 28, 2025 - 22:52

Is this a common situation? Have others asked this question?
Or is this just a quirky piece of music, and the F# signature fits a larger design through the piece it comes from.
I wonder if there would be a call for a Musescore setting that specifies how the signature and the composition relate. For example a two-part setting when the signature is chosen: You choose C, then F# as the secondary key. Then it would know you intend sharps rather than flats for the ambiguous notes. But then, would it understand that when you hit the F key, you mean E#...?
Thanks for your response.

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• Mar 28, 2025 - 23:45

Having no key signature and specifying sharps and flats for each note that needs them is uncommon but not unheard of. As said, the musical keyboard generates pitch and not a name. Having a "two-part" setting might be feasible but that would only cover the niche occasion when you want the music to behave like there was a particular key signature but don't want to show it. Most people would not use it.

For this particular piece, why not just enter the music with the F# key signature and then replace the key signature with the "X Open/Atonal" key signature once you have entered all the notes?

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• Mar 29, 2025 - 00:16

The C/Am key signature gets transposed if you transpose the score or if you are using a transposing instrument. The atonal key signature doesn't get transposed; only the notes get transposed and accidentals are added/removed/changed where necessary. It is particularly useful for horn parts which are written with a variety of transpositions but without a key signature.

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