No. 600
Page-Attached Floating Staff Systems
IWBNI there were a new type of object called page-attached floating
staff system (FSS) that would have the following properties:
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An FSS could be attached to a given page in page view using the staff tool.
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All measures in a given FSS would be displayed within a single system and
would never wrap to another system.
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An FSS would be positioned in page view relative to the page margin or
page edge. The width of an FSS could be edited.
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A start time could be specified for an FSS as a given number of seconds
from the beginning of the score, or as a given beat within a given measure
of the normal staves that currently exist in Finale.
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A playback option would be available to mute a given FSS. An FSS that is
not muted would begin playing back at its associated start time.
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The tempo at which a given FSS plays back could be different from that
of the normal staves or any other FSS.
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An FSS would be visible in scroll view. The horizontal position of the
first beat of an FSS would be aligned with the position in the normal staves
at which its associated start time occurs. When the predefined staff set
All
Staves is selected, FSSs would be displayed below all normal staves
so as not to overlap normal staves or other FSSs. A given FSS could be
selected to be included in a staff set that is to be programmed and the
vertical position at which a given FSS is displayed in a staff set could
be modified in any way so that it could, for example, be displayed between,
on top of, or above normal staves.
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The contents of an FSS could be edited by using all the same tools that
are used to edit normal staves. For example, the speedy entry tool or simple
entry tool could be used to enter notes and rests in an FSS. The expression
tool, articulation tool or smart shape tool could be used to attach objects
to an FSS. The mass mover tool or other plug-ins could be used to modify
the contents of an FSS.
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An FSS would have all of the same types of properties and attributes as
the set of normal staves, except for layout or positioning differences,
playback differences, or other differences implied by features listed here.
The property values of an FSS (e.g. staff names, staff groups, etc.) would
be independent of the values specified for the set of normal staves or
for other FSSs.
This feature would be useful for those who create instructional documents
that consists of a sequence of single-staff or single-system examples or
exercises (possible with text interspersed) where each example may be thought
of as a complete and separate short piece that has its own clefs, keys,
time signatures, instrument names, and measure numbers.
Also, this feature would allow one to play back a piece for which the
parts do not all share the same meter or tempo, or a piece for which a
part begins playing at a time that does not coincide with a simple division
of the beat in any other part. And, for composing, the start time and tempo
of a given part could be changed easily to audition possible alternatives.
(For examples of polymetric scores for which each part has a different
tempo, see pages 168-173 of Modern Rhythmic Notation by Gardner
Read).
Finally, such page-attached systems that do not wrap might be prefered
over the normal set of staves by those who are familiar with other music
notation programs that operate in this way by default (e.g. SCORE by San
Andreas Press).
Additional Comments:
The interface for positioning and sizing FSSs could be similar to that
which is available in the page layout tool for normal staff systems.
The start time of a given FSS could be specified to be within a measure
that has not actually been appended to the normal staves and as a result
does not exist in the normal staves. In this case, imaginary measures would
be appended to the last measure of the normal staves and would have the
same time signature as the last real measure.
An option could be provided to allow one to specify that for a given
FSS, the width of the FSS and the horizontal spacing of music within the
FSS should be adjusted automatically to make the position of notes within
the FSS be consistent with the time at which notes are played, relative
to the normal staves. In the first release of the FSS object, this option
could be omitted and such adjustments could be made manually.
Created: June 20, 2000 (based on comments by Michael Onwood, Aaron
Sherber and Hal Owen)
Last Updated: June 20, 2000
Version: Finale 2000b