musescore / musescore/MuseScore

Ossia Notation

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feature request needs design
Dominant language
C++
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Description

Your idea

A dedicated feature to write ossia passages for any type of score. Ossia should usually appear above the staff to which they apply. This means that for a piano part, an ossia passage of one measure for the lower staff would appear between the staves of the grand staff. The example below is of an ossia part for the pedal stave of an organ piece. I would suggest that the workflow would be:
Select notes or measure(s) for ossia -> right click -> option: "Ossia" -> small staff lines appear above the passage in question, extending only above the notes that the passage applies to. Notes for the ossia can be input in the ordinary way. If a whole system is selected, then a small staff appears above (see Additional Context.)
image

Problem to be solved

Musescore currently cannot notate ossia flexibly or like the examples mentioned. It should be noted that all current ways to make an ossia passage are complicated workarounds.

Prior art

No response

Additional context

Ossia that are less than or equal to two bars in length have no clef, key signature, etc. Ossia three bars in length and more appear as an ordinary small staff. (In all cases, barlines are shared between the main stave and ossia.)
In examples from G. Schirmer editions, ossia are about 60% size. This ossia feature would be purely visual, with no effect on playback.

Checklist
  • This request follows the guidelines for reporting issues
  • I have verified that this feature request has not been logged before, by searching the issue tracker for similar requests

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

No source files, tests, or entry points are identified in the issue. Begin by reviewing the proposed selection/context-menu workflow and the additional-context rules; done means ossia passages can be created visually above the applicable staff, support the stated length-based notation behavior, share barlines, and have no playback effect.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
desktop
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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