mscuthbert
commented
8 years ago A particular case of the need for something approaching cautionary clefs is at the beginning of piano scores -- I haven't found a way in Finale or MusicXML to represent the traditional case where all piano scores begin with a treble staff and a bass staff. If the first note of a staff requires a different clef then both clefs are printed, the first as a full-sized clef and the second as a mid-measure staff change occurring at the same place in musical time as the first clef (but following time signatures, key signatures, etc.). Thanks!
MusicXML 3.0 provides direct representation of nearly all aspects of a particular engraving of a score. However, one thing that is missing is a direct representation of cautionary key signatures, time signatures, and clefs.
These cautionary symbols can occur at the end of the system before a change occurs. A case that is more difficult to handle without explicit information is when the change occurs at the end of a first ending, or the beginning of a second ending. Examples are in Elaine Gould's Behind Bars (last figure on page 234, first figure on page 235). Handling both cases means that these cautionary symbols may appear either before the right barline or after the left barline.
See the MusicXML forum discussion started by Bernd Jungmann at http://forums.makemusic.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=2508. Requests for this feature via private email date back earlier than this to at least 2005.