How do you write these sort of notes?

Question

I'm a composer, and I was wondering: is there any sort of note that does not add to the measure, but is still played the entire length of the note (not appoggiatura or grace notes). they look like little notes and composers typically use them for ornaments and cadenzas...but what are they called? i've tried appoggiatura, but they detract time from the note after...

Answer 1

Hard to get at the crux of your question - but I think that you mean "how do I notate grace notes in Sibelius or Finale, as legitimate ornamentation that does NOT affect the meter in the measure?" Close?



Let me know if I am on the right track with this - otherwise, if you use pen, you can write anything you want - the players will get it. It is only trying to learn to ins and outs of digital programs that we get irked when we cannot find WHAT makes the program do what we want.

Answer 2

well i think you are talking about two different things.



for an ornament, there are a certain number of beats specified by the meter so if you put more notes than fit, it has to come from somewhere... so "grace note" would be correct.



but when you mean like a cadenza or an ad libitum...

those do exist "out of time" and are sometimes written with small notes.

if it goes on long enough that there are metric feelings within it, you can even used dashed barlines inside this area that dont count towards the measure numbering.



if it's one instrument doing this, but otherwise playing in a group, the rest of the group would have a single measure with a fermata over a rest here, with the word "cadenza" to let them know they will be waiting for a while.



as for what to call them... its just "cadenza" or "ad lib"



or... are you asking what its called to look up how to make them in some notation software?

in finale, if there are just a few, they are "grace notes" and their time will not add up or affect the measure.

if its the cadenza kind, you can do it two ways.

- within one measure, use the tuplet tool to fit in as many notes as you need and then just change the note size for that section using the mass edit tool and the "change" tab. you can manually break and attach beams with the / button.

- use multiple measures and then make the measure lines dashed for that section and program the measure numbers to stop at the beginning of it and restart at the end. and again make the note size smaller. this one will take more formatting though, to hide the measures in the other parts when you extract.

Answer 3

"but is still played the entire length of the note " - could you mean a trill, that lasts the length of the note? An acciacatura is a grace note that is so quick it doesn't have a time value, so doesn't really detract time from the main note which follows, but an acciacatura doesn't last the length of the note either.