You're correct that the convention is to use a double whole rest in 4/2 (and possibly some other large meters). I'd say that today that practice is somewhat antiquated. Players will instantly understand that they are to remain silent for the entire measure if there's a regular whole rest.
That being said, if you really want the double whole rest as the Default Whole Rest in Finale, go to Doc Options>Notes & Rests>Rest Characters pop up menu. Choose Default Whole Rest. Select the double whole rest character (it's in slot 227 on my machine). Note that this will change all default whole rests for every measure, regardless of the time signature. If you're working in only 4/2, then this is probably OK. AFAIK, there is no way to have Finale automatically use double whole rests in 4/2 and regular whole rests in all other meters in the same document. You could insert them manually as expressions, though. On Fri, May 16, 2014 at 8:24 AM, Gippo Mercoli <[email protected]> wrote: > I recenty had to solve a similar situation and I discovered (or should I > had to know?!) that no matter about the time signature, empty bars need > whole rest. > > > ------ > > Gippo Mercoli > www.clubgippo.com > > > Il giorno 16/mag/2014, alle ore 17:05, Martin Banner <[email protected]> > ha scritto: > > > > I am preparing a modern edition of an 18th century choral/orchestral > > work. The last several movements are in cut time (4/2), four beats to > > a measure, half note gets the beat. > > > > Finale uses a whole rest as the default empty measure rest, but I'm > > not sure if this is preferable, or a double whole rest (which is what > > actually is written by the composer in his autograph score). For a > > modern edition, is standard practice for an empty measure in 4/2 time > > a whole rest or double whole rest? > > > > If the concensus is double whole rest, how does one get the double > > whole rest centered in the empty measures? > > > > Thanks, > > Martin > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Finale mailing list > > [email protected] > > https://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale > > > > To unsubscribe from finale send a message to: > > [email protected] > > > _______________________________________________ > Finale mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale > > To unsubscribe from finale send a message to: > [email protected] > > _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] https://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale To unsubscribe from finale send a message to: [email protected]
