Hauptstimme and Nebenstimme "articulations"

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Randall Davidson Edited February 14, 2023 17:56

I teach music composition and, for the most part, teach music using a common harmonic language from the 21st Century. I also ask my students to understand the history, repertoire compositional approaches and theory of the Second Viennese School. I have found that hauptstimme and nebenstimme articulation/notation is helpful to composers to communicate their intentions about the musical lines in the foreground and middle-ground.

Hauptstimme and nebenstimme are not available in Finale. Two questions: 1) is this something that is under consideration in the "artiuclations" menu and 2) are there any options outside of Finale?

Best, Randall Davidson

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PETER THOMSEN Edited February 14, 2023 18:28

Welcome to the forum!

What version of Finale are you using? - Perhaps v27.3?

You wrote:

Hauptstimme and nebenstimme are not available in Finale.

Hauptstimme and nebenstimme are not created in the Default Document.

But you can make them available yourself.

You can create them as articulations, using the Articulation Tool.

Or you can create them as expressions, using the Expression Tool (= what I would do).

1) You can create the symbols as {font character} symbols, using one of the fonts that has the glyphs.

If you are using Finale v27, then you have MakeMusic’s new SMuFL fonts, like e. g. Finale Maestro.

Finale Maestro has the symbols in the slots #E860 and #E861.

Do you have other SMuFL fonts than the MakeMusic fonts? like e. g. Bravura, or November2?

If you are using an older (non-SMuFL) Finale version, then take a look at the Toccata font.

You can use the font characters as (font) character articulations, or as text expressions.

2) In case you do not like the way the symbols look in your music fonts, consider creating the symbols as shapes, using the Shape Designer (which is a drawing environment inside Finale).

The shapes are not hard to create, and you get full control (line thickness, line length, angle, &c.).

You can use the shapes as shape articulations, or as shape expressions.

MIKE ROSEN Posted February 14, 2023 18:28

The characters are available in both the Bravura and Aruvarb fonts.

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