Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: Octave change indicator (Read 10704 times) previous topic - next topic

Octave change indicator

Hi All,

So glad to see the NWC forum alive and well! Lots of new users joining all the time, I really enjoy reading the posts.

Does anyone know if NWC can print the "8va" marking or the Treble clef with the little "8" attached to the bottom (a different sort of tenor clef)? I have searched in the NWC help for the word "octave" but have come up empty. Alas, I do not know the proper term for the "8va" designation, or for the treble-tenor clef. If anyone can educate me as to the proper terminology, that too would be helpful! Thanks.

Re: Octave change indicator

Reply #1 –
Sue

When you set up your clef (C key or Insert Clef) you will see an Octave shift box.
Inside that you will find 3 entries - None, Octave Up or Octave Down.

For the Tenor Clef, select octave down. This will give you the clef with an 8 underneath it and the stave will play an octave lower.

NoteWorthy does not support 8va, 15ma ,8va bassa etc as such and so you have to insert a clef with an 8 above or below it (as described above) to get the effect in the middle of a stave.
To return to normal just enter a clef on its own without the 8 above or below it. This is sometime written as Loco in the music.

According to my dictionary, the term for these is :

8va all'ottava
8va bassa ottava bassa
15ma quindicesima (Play 2 octaves higher)

HTH

Richard

Re: Octave change indicator

Reply #2 –
Hi Richard, thanks for the quick reply! I just upgraded my work machine from 1.50 to 1.51a, and I see the "octave up/down" box you mention. I will have to look on my other (home) machine, which still has 1.50 on it, but I do not think that octave box was there (either that or I was very asleep last night when writing this music!) :>

What a great product NWC is, and what great folk are using it! Thanks again for the help and the education.

Sue

Re: Octave change indicator

Reply #3 –
Sue, you must have been sleepy :)
I think that this feature exists since version 1.21 (maybe 1.10 but ain't sure).
Anyway you could ask Eric (NWC author) to add a link in the online help about octavas and the li'l 8 above or under the clef. :)

NWCly yours

Re: Octave change indicator

Reply #4 –
8va = ottava alta
8vb  = ottava bassa
15ma    = quindicesima alta
15mb  - quindicesima bassa

Re: Octave change indicator

Reply #5 –
The abbreviation 8vb is only a copyist's shorthand and should not be used in engraved music.
- The Essential Dictionary of Music Notation, Tom Gerou & Linda Lusk, © MCMXCVI by Alfred Publishing Co., Inc.

15ma bassa is extremely rare (usually used by lazy people...).

Re: Octave change indicator

Reply #6 –
According to the Associated Board Guide to Music Theory 8va = ottava, Italian for octave, used above or below the stave.

Having said that they seem to use mainly 8 on its own in their own published pieces. However one instance in a Poulenc piece uses 8e double for the double octave up (French presumably) and another in a Debussy piece 8a bassa.

Re: Octave change indicator

Reply #7 –
I've always used "8va" above the staff for octave up, and "8ve" below for octave down. I forget where I got the "8ve" notion. It doesn't seem right, now that I think of it.

You can add "8va" as a text indication, but it won't affect playback.

Re: Octave change indicator

Reply #8 –
I just finished playing a show that has an indication in the piano book to play two octaves higher for a bar or so. It actually says 16va.  Can you believe it?  I thought it was just sloppy, but there it was again three systems later! And again after that!

Re: Octave change indicator

Reply #9 –
Are you guys also doing octaves this way?

write a text with: 8-------------------------\

and look at print preview + adjust.

Mostly the line isn't long enough so I add another:

------------------------\

Is there another way? Because replay doesn't sound an octave higher. And the unnecessary addition of a clef with a small 8 on it is not common in notations.

Re: Octave change indicator

Reply #10 –
'And the unnecessary addition of a clef with a small 8 on it is not common in notations."

Make the clef sign invisible.
Carl Bangs
Fenwick Parva Press
Registered user since 1995

Re: Octave change indicator

Reply #11 –
But then you don't get a clef at the beginning of the next line!  If you're reading multi-staff music (say for piano, organ or harp), or music for an instrument that regularly changes clef (viola, cello, bassoon, and sometimes trombone), or even a full score, this missing clef can be quite noticeable.

Re: Octave change indicator

Reply #12 –
Hi Ewan,

But then you don't get a clef at the beginning of the next line! - true, but you could always use a hidden staff for playback and have the visible one muted...

Lawrie
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Octave change indicator

Reply #13 –
Albert, try this:

What you need to essentially do is use 4 text entries (use as many hyphens as you need).  You will need to download and install the Boxmark2 font from the Scriptorium (http://nwc-scriptorium.org/helpful.html#Fonts) and, in Page Setup, make it Userfont1.

Here are the 4 entries:

1/  8va-----    (this is the beginning entry)
2/  --------    (this is a filler entry)
3/  --------  (this is also a filler, but call it the first closing entry)
4/  a closing hook or bracket which I can't reproduce in Internet Explorer.

Just before the first transposed note, insert the first entry 8va-----.

Place the first closing entry  --------    just before the last transposed note.  Make sure this entry has a blank space or two at the end of the text itself so it won't run into the final closing entry, which will be the closing bracket.  Position it so it is right justified, at next note.

Then, using lower case w, insert text consisting of just the ending hook/bracket, right justified, at next note,  just before the last note.

You may now find that the hyphenated lines don't meet up, so just use the filler -------- at various places, centre-justified, to fill the gaps.

It's actually easier to do this all with one text string of ASCII or ANSI characters, but I couldn't make it work when I first tried to do it this morning in the Internet Browser window, so I thought it safer to suggest the method detailed herein.

The result should be satisfactory, correct and understood by all.  I've been playing for over 40 years, and it was only in the last little while, in one of the Noteworthy forums or usergroups, that I encountered the transposed clef symbol.  That suggests to me that more musicians will be familiar with the 8va dotted line/ending hook thing than the little 8 below a clef sign.

Re: Octave change indicator

Reply #14 –
The thing is, it is easier just to write 8va---------.
and on each new line in the print score I place another 8va-------.

Maybe the closing hook is interesting to use, but it wouldn't match the 8va------- that I wrote then.

Re: Octave change indicator

Reply #15 –
Here's your closing hook: „Ÿ„¢
;-)

Re: Octave change indicator

Reply #16 –
well, it looked good when I entered it. Alt-196 and Alt-191.
Never mind.
 

Re: Octave change indicator

Reply #17 –
The clef problem is solved in NWC2. Instead of a clef, you insert an instrument patch with transposition +12 and uncheck Send Patch. If you don't mind 8va in Staff Bold, you can even add it as the instrument name.
Registered user since 1996