Scot Hanna-Weir wrote:
We got a project in that requires doing some notation with neumes.
What advice do you all have about working with this type of notation
in Finale. Should we shell out the cash and buy the Medieval plugin
(http://www.klemm-music.de/medieval/), or are there ways to
effectively do this within the confines of Finale without spending
that money?
I don't know a way to do it without spending any money, but I managed to
do it for less money by purchasing the St. Meinrad square note fonts.
(cf. <http://www.saintmeinrad.edu/monastery_lit_fonts_melody.aspx>). If
I am only doing square notes, I use these in a word or text processor,
but if I need both square and round notes, I use them quite effectively
with Finale. The way I do this is to create the appropriate number of
staves, including a staff for the square notation. I define the staff
where the square notation will seem to appear to have no lines, and I
fill it with a rest for each neume, using either a quarter or an eighth
rest for each punctum. I then complete the accompaniment, and other
items in Finale, then add lyrics, assigning lyrics for the chant
portions to the rests. When the lyric assignment is complete, I hide
the rests, and open a text block superimposed over the
staff-with-no-lines, and size the St. Meinrad fonts so that the square
notes lay properly over the lyrics.
With practice, it is easy to accomplish. A further advantage is the
cost: the St. Meinrad Fonts are only $50.00 U.S.
For me the biggest disadvantage is that there is no playback. Franky,
these days, unless I am working for purists, I am more inclined to use
round notation for chant; I use quarter notes for puncta, dotted
quarters for longer notes, and half notes for still longer ones. I hide
the stems, and use slurs or smart brackets to indicate compound neumes.
An example of this is to be seen in the CPDL Score, "Te Deum (Solemn Tone)".
ns
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