IWBNI it were possible to vary the width of bars from staff to staff within a given system. Such a feature would be useful for polymetric music.

As it is now, one may vary the time signature from staff to staff by selecting the checkbox Time Signature in the Independent Elements section of the Staff Attributes dialog box. Using this feature one may, for example, set the time signature of the first bar of the first staff of a given system to 4/4 and set the time signature of the first bar of the second staff of the system to 7/4. Since these bars share the same barlines, the tempo of the second staff will be faster than that of the first staff to ensure that both bars are completed at the same time. With independent barlines, the barline for the 4/4 bar could automatically be placed between the 4th and 5th beat of the 7/4 bar and all staves would share the same tempo.

This feature could be implemented by adding a checkbox called Barlines to the Independent Elements section of the Staff Attributes dialog box.

Created: January 10, 2000 (based on a submission from Andrew Stiller)
Last Updated: January 10, 2000
Version: Finale 2000b