Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: double-barred notes (Read 3211 times) previous topic - next topic

double-barred notes

In an earlier post, Robert A. wrote: "In SATB church choral, we often come across music (generally a psalm) in which a particular pitch is used for a number of consecutive syllables. Rather than write a note for each syllable, a single note is written, with the understanding that the note applies to however many syllables are in the line. This also avoids problems that occur when verses have different syllable count.
Usually, the single note is a double-barred whole note, but I have seen simple quarter notes, or stemless note-heads, used for that purpose."

I am currently transcribing some renaissance pieces, and I am stuck with this problem. Does anyone of you tell me how to enter a double-barred whole note -a whole note between two pairs of short, vertical lines- on a staff? It's not in 'Boxmarks' or 'NWCV15'.

Thanks

Ivo

Re: double-barred notes

Reply #1 –
NWC doesn't currently support double-barred (or single-barred) whole notes. But these symbols are available in fonts that can be found at the Scriptorium, helpful files, fonts. I believe that Boxmarks2 has the symbol. It is placed as "text".

A link to the Scriptorium can be found from the Noteowrthy Software top page, user links. Keep it close to your heart.

If you can't find it there, I can point you to my own page, where you can definitely find it. But the Scriptorium is a better general-purpose resource for all NWC users.

Incidentally, although double-barred whole notes are often requested, I believe the reason they are not internal to NWC is that the program derives MIDI instructions from the notation. But barred whole notes (in the choral music with which I am familiar) are used to represent recitative of indefinite duration, and varying syllables. So it couldn't be tied to MIDI.

Re: double-barred notes

Reply #2 –
I've found it. Thanks, Robert.

Ivo
 

Re: double-barred notes

Reply #3 –
I've seen a (very) few (in SATB church music) that weren't for the variable-length notes. I transcribed them as two whole notes, connected by a tie. It's not as pretty, but it's understandable, and playback works fine.

Another option is to place text "vertical bars" directly in the staff before and after the whole note, and then put a hidden indication (MPC command to halve the beat rate, or bird's-eye) to get the playback correct.

For what I think you're doing -- preparing scores for people to sing variable-length notes -- playback isn't going to work anyway: you'd have to have a different version for each stanza, with a hidden staff with a separate notes for each syllable. (If you want, say, organ accompaniment, you'd have to do something like that with ANY music editor, no matter how much you paid for it.)