NOTATIO

I have always preferred, both aesthetically and informationally, slurs & ties pointing toward the center of the notehead – where possible. Of course sometimes it is not, especially with very short slurs. As long as they seem obviously to connect the noteheads, they appear to my eye to be doing their job. Where the vertical distance to the notehead is big, there’s a bit of imagination in the reader’s mind as to how the curve would continue.

Slurs on the stem side of notes or chords are a whole other can of worms …

John Ruggero wrote:I wish that Finale allowed control over the stem height of individual flats. Or maybe it does?

Since the flat's are font characters, you would essentially need to replace the glyph for a shorter version, but this could of course be done. I'll keep it in mind as a possible stylistic alternate.

The only other way, would be to hide the top of the stem with an opaque expression, but I'm not sure if this would work in Finale.

John Ruggero wrote:Does anyone allow slurs to pass through elements like note stems? I have a pet peeve about slurs that pass in the midst of stacked piano fingering.

I would certainly try to avoid it, although there might be situations where I would see it as the best option. The only thing I know for sure that I would never do, is to break the slur for any element whatsoever. Slurs passing between stacked piano fingering seems rather unnecessary, though.

Knut wrote:The only thing I know for sure that I would never do, is to break the slur for any element whatsoever. Slurs passing between stacked piano fingering seems rather unnecessary, though.

Would you include other staff objects in this? For example, if a tie/slur cut right through a time-signature/key-signature change?

tisimst wrote:

Knut wrote:The only thing I know for sure that I would never do, is to break the slur for any element whatsoever. Slurs passing between stacked piano fingering seems rather unnecessary, though.

Would you include other staff objects in this? For example, if a tie/slur cut right through a time-signature/key-signature change?

I would indeed break a tie in those situations, but not slurs. I've never come across a situation where this was inevitable, at least.

Knut wrote:

tisimst wrote:Would you include other staff objects in this? For example, if a tie/slur cut right through a time-signature/key-signature change?

I would indeed break a tie in those situations, but not slurs. I've never come across a situation where this was inevitable, at least.

Agree, I think it is OK for ties to be cut, but not for slurs.
Let me know a contrary example if anyone finds!

I also agree. Ties, yes; slurs, no. This came up previously at MM or here. A slur means unbroken, so it is counter-intuitive to break one.

MJCube wrote:

I have always preferred, both aesthetically and informationally, slurs & ties pointing toward the center of the notehead – where possible. Of course sometimes it is not, especially with very short slurs. As long as they seem obviously to connect the noteheads, they appear to my eye to be doing their job. Where the vertical distance to the notehead is big, there’s a bit of imagination in the reader’s mind as to how the curve would continue.

Slurs on the stem side of notes or chords are a whole other can of worms …

So you are another one who prefers "tangent" centering. I was beginning to think I was just off on a tangent.

But I thought that slurs on the stem side were easy. The tips center over the stems. Are there complications that I am not considering?

If they’re beamed, then of course the stem side is easy. But when not beamed, as happens constantly in choral music with multiple voices on a staff, choosing the best alignment can be quite a struggle. You see everything from connecting tips of stems to pointing toward the centers of the noteheads (from the other side). I’m sure copying houses have their rules, but I haven’t discerned a rule by inspection that satisfies me. Most of the time I content myself with moving slurs 1½ spaces in from the stem end by default in Sibelius. But that setting doesn’t apply to flagged eighth notes, because of the duration. So there are always adjustments.

MJCube wrote:If they’re beamed, then of course the stem side is easy. But when not beamed, as happens constantly in choral music with multiple voices on a staff, choosing the best alignment can be quite a struggle. You see everything from connecting tips of stems to pointing toward the centers of the noteheads (from the other side). I’m sure copying houses have their rules, but I haven’t discerned a rule by inspection that satisfies me. Most of the time I content myself with moving slurs 1½ spaces in from the stem end by default in Sibelius. But that setting doesn’t apply to flagged eighth notes, because of the duration. So there are always adjustments.

For me this depends on context. By default on the stem side, I place my slurs 0.5 spaces from the end of the stem towards the notehead, and with a somewhat similar horizontal gap to the stems horizontally. Slur tips are usually only centered above the stems whenever the notes contain staccato dots or other articulations placed inside slurs, but there might be situations where I'll do this even when there is no articulations on the stem side.

Of course, MJCube. What was I thinking? Or not thinking?

Here are the slurs produced by my new settings (thanks of Knut) in Finale in the thread on Finale Slur Settings.

What do you think of these? The setting is .5 spaces from the ends of the stem in both vertical and horizontal directions. (Sorry, Knut you beat me by a minute or two.)

Hey, these are really nice, John!