Accent Marks |
With Composer you can add a variety of accent marks and other music symbols at noteheads, or at the ends of note stems. You can assign two accents to a single note or chord. You can add accent marks for several selected notes with a single command. In Composer, the term "accent mark" is defined more generally than the musical definition of accent mark. Composer's term "accent mark" includes other types of annotations that are placed directly above or below notes and chords. These extra annotations include string bowings (up, down) and fermatas. In Composer, accent marks do not affect the actual performance of the notes. Instead, you can directly edit the performance of the notes exactly as you want the accent marks to be interpreted during playback. For example, if the note has an ">" accent mark that you wish to be interpreted during playback, you can increase the loudness of that note. You can shorten the as-performed duration of a note if it has a staccato mark. For a given region, you can filter (select) all of the notes that have a staccato mark, and decrease their as-performed durations in one step. Composer offers a special option that converts a written-out staccato into a note or chord with a staccato accent mark. For example, this option will convert an eighth note followed by an eighth rest to a quarter note with a staccato mark, or a sixteenth note followed by a dotted eighth rest to a quarter note with a staccato mark. See the procedure at the end of this topic. To add one accent mark, or two accents, to one or more notes:
-- OR -- Navigate to the Accent Palette from the top palette as shown:
-- OR -- Type one or two of the equivalent keyboard commands shown above. -- OR -- Select one or two of the accent mark types in the Accent Menu. Composer will add the accent mark(s) to all of the selected notes. By default, Composer places accents at the noteheads for notes in single voice, and at the stem ends for notes in upper or lower voice. You can override this default. To force the accent mark to be placed at the notehead or at the stem end:
-- OR -- Click the Place At Notehead or Place at Stem End button in the accent palette. -- OR -- Type "n" for placement at the notehead, or "s" for placement at the stem end. To remove an accent mark from one or more selected notes:
The accent palette will show what accent, if any, is associated with the selected notes. If all of the notes have the same accent mark, then the accent mark button shown in a "full on" color. If some, but not all, of the notes have the same accent mark, then the button will be displayed in a "half on" color. The colors will depend on your Color Theme. This is illustrated below:
If some, but not all, of the notes have the accent mark, then click the button once. That will add the accent mark to all of the notes. Then click the button a second time. That will remove the accent mark from all of the notes.
To replace a written-out staccato performance with a note or chord with a staccato mark:
In the following, some notes that will be converted to staccato marks are selected, and some notes that will not be converted are selected. Also, some rests are selected, and some rests are not selected.
-- OR -- Type SHIFT+A.
-- OR -- Type "r." (the letter "r" followed by a dot/period) for replace with staccato (dot). -- OR -- Choose the Replace Notes and Rests with staccato command in the Accent Menu. The result of the command for the above example is: Notice how a pair of sixteenth notes did not need staccato marks. |