Can Finale PrintMusic 2014 make stemless notes like Gregorian plainchant?

singing4hope

Hi everyone,

I am trying to re-arrange an SATB score with Gregorian plainchant into Finale PrintMusic 2014. I came across another post asking if "Print Music" can create "stemless notes" and hide the music measure. Some posters said Print Music cannot but there are such features in "Finale".

Now my software's name is Finale PrintMusic 2014. How do I get about this? I had to use eighth notes and use the 12/8 measurement and pause symbol just to fit the desired notes in a single bar. If there is stemless note option in my software it would be very helpful indeed.

I tried looking for the "Special Tool" tool but couldn't find it. I tried also to find the "Document Attributes" to get to the Stem option to no avail either.

The online generator Gregorio is four lines, this particular plainchant I need to re-arrange has five lines. So Gregorio will not be of much help to me.

Many thanks for taking time to read this!

chonak

If the answer doesn't turn up here, it may be worthwhile to look for a discussion group specifically about Finale. Here are some web forums:

http://www.finaleforum.com/
https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/topics

singing4hope

Thank you, chonak, for your suggestion. I will ask in those forums, too.

However, I was wondering if anyone here has had any experience using Finale PrintMusic to arrange Gregorian plainchant. It would be of great help.

melofluent

Searching "stemless notes" in Finale provides fairly clear cut protocols for specific or global applications. Having done this years ago, some other issues you will encounter will include avoidance or manipulation of time signatures, or hiding them; measure length; avoidance of "crowding" stemless notes....etc.

singing4hope

melofluent: I have been searching high and low for the "stemless notes" thing in my Finale programme and I can't find it. Could it be because my Finale is not the full version? I don't know what that means but another forum was talking about Finale PrintMusic is not really a "full version" when it seems to me like I did pay quite a lot for this programme. Sighs.

At the moment, my project looks like the attached. It looks funny because it's supposed to be Gregorian plainchant style with 5 lines.

MarkS

Finale PrintMusic is a sort of Finale-'lite' program without the full capability of the full 'Finale' notation program. I believe the answer to your answer is no—in Finale this would be accomplished by notating everything in traditional stemmed notes, and then 'hiding' the stems, but this does not appear possible in PrintMusic.

PrintMusic 2014 manual here:https://usermanuals.finalemusic.com/PrintMusic2014Win/PrintMusic.htm#PrintMusic/Stems.htm#kanchor780

singing4hope

Thank you, MarkS. I guess that confirms my suspicion that my Finale version is indeed not the full version. :(

melofluent

Sorry, s4h,
Attached is an example of Finale with "un-stemmed" noteheads.

mmeladirectress

Melo thanks for posting this.

if this question takes the thread too far off topic, please reply in a new thread?

I have the Finale program and was just about to look into getting the plug in for Gregorian chant; yes pricey, but I have had it with the Meinrad truetype fonts.

Does anyone have the Finale plug in? Will it give the chant as shown, say, in Liber Usualis?

CGM

There is a Finale plug-in just for early music which, judging from the examples on the site, will be able to do almost anything you like. It's expensive, and it will probably take some time to learn, but if you're experienced in Finale already, it may be the least-unintuitive way to make authentic-looking chant scores.

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