Measure parameters |
Time and key signatures indication [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] By default, Pizzicato handles the display of the time
signature at the beginning of the score and when a change occurs.
Similarly, the key signature is shown at the beginning of each
staff as well as when a change occurs. It can be interesting to
modify this automatic behaviour in order to force a time or key
signature indication, or to hide one. Open the Ex075 example. Select measure 5 on both
staves: In the Edit menu, select the Measure
parameters... item. The following dialog appears: We want for example to hide the key signature displayed in
this measure and to force the display of the time signature. Measures numbering [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] This dialog lets you modify the way in which measures are
numbered. Before that, you need to enable measure numbers,
because it is not automatically active. To do so, see the lesson
entitled Characteristics of Staves. Normally, Pizzicato numbers the measures by starting from the
first. It can be interesting to modify this arrangement. A
typical example is an incomplete measurement (for example with
only one beat) to start a score. This measure is not counted by
convention. Number 1 is assigned to the second measurement and the first
one is not counted. If the first measure must only contain one
beat, it should be specified to Pizzicato in the following way: Listen to the score: Pizzicato plays the first measure as if
it had only one beat. You may also reduce the size of the first
measure. Concerning the display of the measure numbers, the basic rule
is determined by the characteristics of staves dialog box (no
number, each measure, each system or every X measures). But with
the present dialog box, you may override the rules for the
selected measures. The dialog contains a frame entitled Number
indication where you can choose the number display mode for
the selected measures between Automatic (will follow the
general rule), Forced (the measure number will be
displayed) or Hidden (the number will not be displayed). Multimeasure rests [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] When an instrument does not play during
several measures, it is common to write only one measure,
with a rest sign surmounted by a number of measures to count.
Here is for example how to create a multimeasure rest of 10
measures to be counted starting from measure 2: The "10" number specifies the
number of measures to be counted and the numbering goes from
2 to 12 automatically.
Free measures [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] Pizzicato lets you create free measures,
i.e. measures which do not contain a fixed duration. You can
thus add notes freely and they will be equally distributed in
the measure. When Pizzicato plays a free measure, it goes on
to the following measure when all notes has been played. The
time signature indication is thus no more necessary (you can
hide it). Let us see how to transform measure 12 into a free
measure. By listening to the score, Pizzicato plays
the first 2 measures, waits during 10 measures and then plays
the 7 quarter notes before going to the next measure. Notice
that when you use the measure parameters dialog box, it
affects all selected measures. In all cases, it affects all
the staves of the selected measures, because the various
staves of the same measure must have the same duration and
number. Justification and staff lines [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist] The Measure justification frame is used to enable
(which is the case by default) or disable (choice Never)
the automatic justification of measures. If some measures were
adapted manually, this option ca certify that Pizzicato will
never change the measure layout again, for instance after a page
layout modification. The Staff lines frame is used to change the visible
lines of the staff in the selected measures. This is for instance
used to create contemporary music notation where some measures
have no lines at all.