Diminution
Diminution refers to the process of halving
a motif’s rhythmic values, so that each quarter note becomes an eighth
note, and so on. In effect, the following process re-notates any passage
so that it halves every note’s value.
To halve
the rhythmic values in a passage
- Click the Selection Tool and select the region
of music you want to affect. See Selecting
music for some region-selecting shortcuts.
- From the Utilities menu, choose Change, then
Note Durations. The Change Note Durations dialog box appears.
- Choose 50% from the Change All Note Durations
by drop-down
list menu. If you want Finale to re-bar
the selected measures so that there are twice as many notes per measure,
make sure Rebar Measures is selected. See Change
Note Durations dialog box for details on these options.
- Click OK (or press enter).
You can even double the values of the notes only in one layer (if
Show Only Current Layer is selected in the Edit menu. Finally, note that
this command does not affect empty measures. (A measure in which you’ve
entered a “real” whole rest doesn’t count as empty in this context.) That
is, it will double the values of all notes and rests you’ve entered, but
it won’t create a second completely empty measure.