Crescendo/Decrescendo

A crescendo may be notated either as a “hairpin” shape or as the word cresc. or crescendo. The hairpin can be created with either of two Finale tools, depending on your purpose. If your goal is to create a graphic crescendo marking, you can do so quickly and easily with the Crescendo Tool (on the Smart Shapes palette). A Smart Shape crescendo has three special advantages: first, it expands and contracts automatically to fit the layout of music it affects; second, it automatically breaks into two segments if it straddles a system line break. Lastly, Finale’s Human Playback automatically interprets hairpins. See Playback for details. You can also deactivate Human Playback and assign playback using the TGTools Smart Playback plug-in. See Smart Playback.

If you want to affect the playback only, and you don’t need the marking in the score, you can create a smooth, effective volume increase using the MIDI Tool. (Of course, you could also combine the above techniques to create a graphic and playback crescendo.)

You can also create a graphic crescendo that plays back (or the word cresc. that also affects playback), using the Expression Tool. An expression crescendo, for example, is the only one that can appear in more than one staff at once. See also SmartFind and Paint dialog box.

In all cases, the process for creating crescendo or decrescendo markings is nearly identical.

To create a Smart Shape (graphic) crescendo or decrescendo marking

1. Click the Smart Shape Tool . The Smart Shape palette appears.
2. Click the Crescendo Tool or Decrescendo Tool .
3. Position the cursor in the measure where you want the marking to begin so that the cursor arrow points to the staff to which you’re attaching it. This is particularly important when you’re working in orchestral scores; if you accidentally attach a Smart Shape to the wrong staff, it won’t appear in the correct staff when the parts are extracted.
4. Double-click; on the second click, hold the button down and drag to the right until the hairpin is the correct length. Human Playback, which is active by default, interprets hairpins automatically and performs them during playback. See Playback Settings dialog box for details. If you have disabled Human Playback and wish to add a playback effect to hairpin crescendos manually, see Smart Playback.

To move, reshape, or delete a Smart Shape crescendo

If the hairpin is already selected, it displays handles; if so, skip to the last two steps. See also Align/Move Dynamics Plug-in.

1. Click the Smart Shape Tool . The Smart Shape palette appears.
2. Click the handle of the shape you want to modify. The shape displays handles:

3. Drag the appropriate handle to change the width, angle, or height of the hairpin. Note:Finale automatically constrains to horizontal dragging while creating or working with hairpins. To disable this feature, from the Smart Shape Menu, choose Smart Shape Options, and then uncheck Make Horizontal. Then click OK. Drag either endpoint of the hairpin across the other to change a crescendo into a decrescendo and vise versa.
4. Press delete to remove the selected shape.

To align multiple Smart Shape hairpins

You can also use the Align/Move Dynamics plug-in to align hairpins with dynamic expressions. See Align/Move Dynamics Plug-in.

1. Click the Smart Shape Tool . The Smart Shape palette appears.
2. Drag-select or shift-click the handles of the hairpins you want to align.
3. Right-click on the hairpin you want the hairpins to align to. Select Align Horizontal or Align Vertical from the contextual menu. If you chose Align Horizontal, the hairpins will move to line up along a horizontal line, based on the hairpin you clicked on. If you selected hairpins on more than one staff, the hairpins will move to the same distance from the staff. If you chose Align Vertical, the hairpins will reshape to line up the endpoints vertically.

To change the default opening and thickness of Smart Shape hairpins

Use this procedure to adjust the default opening for any additional hairpin shapes you place into the score.

1. From the Smart Shape Menu, choose Smart Shape Options. The Smart Shape Options dialog box appears.
2. In the Crescendo Opening Width text box, enter a new width value. All of your crescendo or decrescendo symbols will have an opening of the size you specified, unless they have been manually edited. You can select the measurement unit in the Units drop-down menu.
3. Edit the Line Thickness text box, in the Crescendo/Decrescendo section of the Smart Shape Options dialog box. This number controls the thickness of the actual straight lines that compose the hairpin shape.

To create a playback crescendo or decrescendo with the MIDI Tool

1. From the Window Menu, choose Advanced Tools Palette, and click the MIDI Tool . Select the region whose playback data you want to affect. Double-click the highlighted area. The MIDI Tool split-window appears. Drag through the graph region above the notes to select all of them, or shift-click (or drag-enclose) individual note handles if you want only certain notes to be affected.
2. Make sure Key Velocities is selected in the MIDI Tool Menu; then choose Scale from the MIDI Tool Menu. The Scale dialog box appears.
3. Specify the degree of crescendo or decrescendo by filling in the From and To text boxes. There are two buttons at the bottom of this text box: Absolute, and Percent of Original. If Absolute is checked, the numbers you enter are MIDI velocity values, which can be from 0 (silent) to 127 (very loud). If you choose Percent of Original, you type percentage values (for example, you might want to create a crescendo that increases from 100% to 150% of the current volume). This last option is useful for preserving the existing dynamic balance of the music while still achieving a smooth increase in volume.
4. Click OK (or press enter). You can also create a MIDI-based playback crescendo by increasing the MIDI Volume controller. See Volume and Continuous data. To automate this task for hairpin crescendos, see Smart Playback.

To create a Text Expression (such as “cresc.” or “decresc.”)

You can use any text you want in a Text Expression: “crescendo,” “diminuendo,” and so on.

1. Click the Expression Tool  .
2. Click on, above, or below the note or measure to which you want to attach the marking. The Expression Selection dialog box appears.
3. Choose the Dynamics category. All the dynamic expressions appear in the preview window.
4. If the crescendo or decrescendo marking already appears in the list, double-click. You return to the document. The marking's positioning settings are those of the Dynamics category. To change them, see Category Designer dialog box. If you do not see the desired marking, continue:
5. Click Create. The Expression Designer dialog box appears.
6. Type "cresc." or "decresc.". Finale automatically applies the font, size, and style specified for the Dynamics category in the Category Designer dialog box.
7. If you do want the mark to affect playback, click the Playback tab (see Expression Designer-Playback).
8. Click OK.
9. Click Assign to add the expression.

To move or delete a crescendo (Text or Shape Expression)

See also Align/Move Dynamics Plug-in.

1. Click the Expression Tool  .
2. Click the note or measure to which the expression was attached. Its handle appears.
3. Drag the handle to move the entire shape. Click the handle and press delete to remove it.