User Manual

10.26
Break marks caesura and breath mark and hold marks fermata and tenuto (previous topic) are similar: They all
specify places in the score where you want to temporarily suspend the ongoing meter count during playback.
The break marks (caesura and breath mark) cause a complete break outside of the current meter. The hold marks
(fermata and tenuto) cause a current note, chord, or rest to continue playing beyond its specied time duration.
NOTE: If there is an NTempo line in the score, Caesuras and Breath Marks are overridden. You must enter the
Hold or Break markings into the NTempo line and assign the duration of hold to the markings in the NTempo
line. This eliminates the need to enter the duration for every Hold or Break mark in the individual parts.
Play a Break Mark
Since the durations for these symbols are strictly determined by interpretation, the default duration setting
for these marks is zero (no change). That means you specify exactly how long you want the durations
to be at each caesura and breath mark if you want to “hear” them whenever you play the score.
Perform a Break Mark
Performing a break mark with NTempo involves one more key press than performing a hold mark.
The playback marker hovers when it reaches one of these symbols. You press an NTempo key an
“extra” time when the break should end and the next note (or rest) should begin.
Caesura
You place the caesura sign at locations in your score where you want a break and a pause,
often longer in duration than a breath mark (next). If you complete steps 5 through 7, below,
Notion playback will read and hold the caesura to your time specication.
1. Ensure you are in Edit mode.
2. To place this mark on your Music Cursor either:
> Press the 9 key two times, or
> In the Entry Palette, hover over the third pane from the right and click the // symbol
in the pop-up menu.
» The // symbol appears on your Music Cursor.
3. Position the Music Cursor at a point where you want a break and a pause. This can be anywhere in the score for a
break when you play a score, but must be in the NTempo sta for a break when you perform a score.
4. Click your mouse or press Enter.
» Notion adds the mark to your score above the sta. If you only need the marking for musicians to read on your
score (and not be interpreted during playback) then you are nished with this procedure.
5. To have Notion play your caesura, you need to inform the software how long you want the break to last. Double-
click the caesura sign you added to the score.
» A temporary text box appears, with the default setting of zero quarter note beats (zero equals no change to
written note values).
6. Clarify how long you want the break to last in playback. Either simply replace the zero with the number of quarter
note beats for the break, or replace the zero plus replace the “quarter notes “ with a longer (such as “half notes”) or
shorter (such as “eighth notes”) value as the basis for the count.
7. Either click anywhere in the score area away from the text box or press Enter.
Breaks