musescore / musescore/MuseScore

Add 6-string Bass Viol to standard instrument list

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#18,955 2 comments 0 reactions 1 assignee View on GitHub

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feature request instruments P3
Dominant language
C++
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Description

Your idea

A typical tudor era viol consort includes a 6 string bass viol (as opposed to the 7-string viola da gamba more commonly used later). It would be good if this was available for selection in the Early Music instrument list.

Problem to be solved

Although a 7 string Viola da Gamba option exists, and can be adjusted, it is a little tedious having to modify the playing ranges to remove the bottom string whenever I want Musescore to indicate notes outside the playable range. I'd rather be able to select the 6-string bass viol as an instrument in it's own right separate from the 7 string viola da gamba. I had it set up as a separate instrument in earlier versions but that option no longer seems to be available in Musescore 4 and I see "removed as duplicate" where it appeared in the instruments.xml.

Prior art

Based on the other members of the viol family I would suggest the following is required:

        <Instrument id="bass-viol">
              <family>viols</family>
              <trackName>Bass Viol</trackName>
              <longName>Bass Viol</longName>
              <shortName>B. Vl.</shortName>
              <description>Bass Viol.</description>
              <StringData>
                    <frets>13</frets>
                    <string>38</string>
                    <string>43</string>
                    <string>48</string>
                    <string>52</string>
                    <string>57</string>
                    <string>62</string>
              </StringData>
              <clef>F</clef>
              <barlineSpan>1</barlineSpan>
              <aPitchRange>38-74</aPitchRange>
              <pPitchRange>38-79</pPitchRange>
              <Channel name="arco">
                    <!--MIDI: Bank 0, Prog 42; MS General: Cello-->
                    <program value="43"/> <!--Cello-->
              </Channel>
              <Channel name="pizzicato">
                    <!--MIDI: Bank 0, Prog 45; MS General: Strings Pizzicato-->
                    <program value="45"/> <!--Pizzicato Strings-->
              </Channel>
              <Channel name="tremolo">
                    <!--MIDI: Bank 0, Prog 44; MS General: Strings Tremolo-->
                    <program value="44"/> <!--Tremolo Strings-->
              </Channel>
              <genre>earlymusic</genre>
    </Instrument>
Additional context

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