Tuplet curiosity
I encountered an odd problem, while making a transcription of this Scriabin prelude (op. 37-1):
This is in 9/8 time, and the duplets are very understandable, but when you come to type the numbers into the Musescore tuplet dialog box (I'm still using ver. 1, but I doubt if it makes much difference), the first number is obviously 2, since there are two of them. But then the other number is "how many would fit in", to which the answer seems to be 1.5. But it isn't possible to enter non-integer numbers.
I got around it by simply using quavers instead, but I'm inclined to think the original slightly clearer. (Of course you could just write two dotted notes, but...)
Anyway, then I noticed another one, this time another Russian: a Glier(e) prelude (op. 30-11):
This is a triplet in 5/4, so the notes are 3 in the place of 2.5(!), and again the minims he uses are much closer to the ordinary values (5/6) than using crotchets (5/3).
Is this notation possible with the latest version? Do people think Russians use funny notation, or what? Suggestions welcome.
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Comments
1st number is ‘duration to be occupied by tuplet’, 2nd ‘tuplet 9/8 beat is 1,5 crotchets, so make for a dotted one, then duplet. Nothing extraordinary, I did it recently in the Schönberg thread where he quotes Brahms:
NOT FOUND: 1
, having missing time signature and tuplet mark give middle voices just the right amount of doubt.
Glière is trickier for MuseScore. I have had the same issue with Henry Cowell when trying out MuseScore 1.1 . Maybe one must still resort to graphical trickery (horizontal offset, hidden voices) and playback version (rhythmic approximation)?
Edit: Just learned how to display picture in post.
Math to the rescue: 2 / 1.5 = 4 / 3. Although you are writing two quarters, you are really asking for fourth eighths in the space of three. Similarly, for the second example, that's 6:5.
Unfortunaterly, if you do that, the number displays as "4" instead of "2" ("4:3" if you ask for ratio instead of number). Given that it isn't always clear what should be displayed - and different people might have different expections - we should probably provide a "text" option as well, where you enter your own text. As it is, you'd have to add a staff text, change its style to Tuplet (well, in 2.0 that's possible, probably not in 1.3, which is just one of a zillion reason to update) and move it into position. But even so, you'd be at the mercy of the layout, as the manual positioning would not be likely to still make sense if the layut changes. I'd probably just select ration and live with the display as 4:3 or 6:5 for now.
Depending what you are after (looks or playback) this might be a working option as well.
The top stave could have the time signature set to 4/4 for just that 1 bar (use CTRL when you drag and drop the time signature to change for this one bar) and then just hide the 4/4 and 5/4 symbols.
Printed example:
![Image1.png]( "Image1.png")
Looks like this in MuseScore Editor:
![Image2.png]( "Image2.png")
The bottom stave could be using a 6/4 measure, enter the tuplet first and used the second voice for the lower notes in which you would then use a rest to position the second note correct and remove the rests so they are not printed.
For three minims spanning a 5/4 bar, just click on the whole-bar rest and press [Ctrl]3 to turn it into triplets. Enter the notes (which will look like crotchets) then select them all and change their Notehead properties to "Minim" via the Inspector. For the bottom stave, first click on the empty bar and do Edit-> Voices-> Exchange Voice 1-2 which will create the necessary rests in Voices 1 & 2 allowing you to [Ctrl]3 the Voice 1 rest and enter the 5-note-long minim+dotted minim note in Voice 2.