IWBNI there were settings to specify the default direction of tie segments that occur at the beginning of a system before the first note of the system, or at the end of a system after the last note of a system, in the case when the stems of the tied notes do not point in the same direction. Note: Cases for which there is more than one tie at a given system break, as might be the case for tied chords, are not considered here.

As it is now, in the case when the last note of a system is up-stemmed and the first note of the next system is down-stemmed, the direction of the tie segment on the last note will be under and the direction of the tie segment on the first note will be over. In this case the two tie segments will not have the same direction. However, both will be locally correct in that each is directed away from the stem of the note to which they are attached that is in the system in which they appear.

As it is now, in the case when the last note of a system is down-stemmed and the first note of the next system is up-stemmed, the direction of both tie segments will be over. In this case both tie segments have will have the same direction, but the tie segment at the beginning of the system will not be locally correct.

When there are mixed stems at a system break, some prefer to have the direction of both tie segments be the same in all cases while others prefer to have the direction of tie segments be locally correct in all cases. Of those who prefer the direction of both tie segments to be the same, some prefer to make the direction of tie segments at the end of systems be locally correct in all cases, while others would prefer to have the direction of tie segments at the beginning of systems be locally correct in all cases. And, others prefer to have the direction of both tie segments be over (e.g. see page 39 of Music Notation in the Twentieth Century by Kurt Stone).

Note: As it is now, one may use the tie tool to manually flip the direction of a tie segment that occurs at the beginning or end of a system.

This could be implemented by adding the following controls to the Tie Direction section of the Tie Options dialog box:

-------------------------------------------
Tie Options Dialog Box

Mixed Stems at System Breaks:
 

Stem Direction		Tie Segment Direction
Last Note of System	First Note of System	End of System	Beginning of System
Up-stemmed	Down-stemmed	|list box{over,under}|	|list box{over,under}|
Down-stemmed	Up-stemmed	|list box{over,under}|	|list box{over,under}|

-------------------------------------------

Note: To have tie segments be flipped as in the current version of Finale, one would specify the following values for these settings:
 

Stem Direction		Tie Segment Direction
Last Note of System	First Note of System	End of System	Beginning of System
Up-stemmed	Down-stemmed	under	over
Down-stemmed	Up-stemmed	over	over

Created: August 5, 2000
Last Updated: August 5, 2000
Version: Finale 2000b