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Topic: More Fermata Fun (Read 2513 times) previous topic - next topic

More Fermata Fun

Is it possible to have a fermata affect only one staff of a score? Specifically, I'm doing a piece in waltz time that ends on a tonic fermata in the melody, but I'd like to have the accompaniment (which does the oom-pah-pah 1-[3-5]-[3-5] thing for a lot of the time) end on an oom-Pah (1-[3-5]). In a "real" score, this would be done with a fermata on the first beat of the last bar in the melody, and the second beat of the last bar (Pah) in the accompaniment, correct? The accompaniment would simply join in the fermata a beat later.

I know the workaround (a tie), but I was wondering if by any chance I missed a more straight-forward way of doing it.

-Maciek

Re: More Fermata Fun

Reply #1 –
I would suggest not adding any delay to the fermata on the melody.  Just let the delay on the accompaniment's fermata take care of it.  Alternatively, don't use fermata delay at all but instead use tempo variances to achieve the same effect (my personal preference, since fermata delay does not survive MIDI export or the browser plugin).

Re: More Fermata Fun

Reply #2 –
You can have fermatas anywhere you like. As you point out, it's notationally correct to have the longer melody note have the fermata on the "1", whereas the accompaniment would have it on the "2" in your situation.

I'd suggest putting a delay of zero on your fermatas, though, and do the slowdown using a tempo change instruction. This way it'll play properly on the browser plug-in and in midi exports.

If you intend to play it only in NWC, just put the delay on the accompaniment fermata, with delay of zero in the melody.

Re: More Fermata Fun

Reply #3 –
Thanks to both of you. Right now, I'm keeping things strictly NWC, so your solution of no delay on the first fermata works very well. Thanks again =).

-m