I wished that Musescore could recognize the note velocity of other instruments when I just put in a series of sforzandos in 1 instrument followed by forte to recognize that it needs to do a crescendo. But it can't. And this leads me to a problem.

I am working on a score of Beethoven's 5th symphony, the first theme to be specific. I have finished the strings(most of it after the violins and violas was putting in cello notes and copying and pasting those into the bass staff) and just got started with the woodwinds, putting in dynamics for the first flute.

But I have a problem. There is no way there would be a fortissimo flute in a syncronized crescendo to forte in an orchestra. And yet because of Musescore, that is exactly what I will be getting if I don't fix it.

Fortissimo before long pause This is where the flute is fortissimo along with the rest of the orchestra. After these 5 notes, the first flute doesn't play for 14 measures.

Crescendo This is where there are sforzandos in the crescendo from piano to forte, again, with the rest of the orchestra.

The sheet music doesn't help because that doesn't show dynamics or crescendos with no notes just to clarify that this spot is when the orchestra does a crescendo.

Beethoven's 5th symphony sheet music

The second staff on the 8th page and the first staff on the 9th page of the pdf is where the crescendo is. The first staff on the 8th page is where the fortissimo i mentioned earlier is.

Here are the methods I can think of to make sure the flute isn't fortissimo during the sforzandos:

Note Velocity Method

I could adjust the note velocity of each individual sforzando but then I would need to know the note velocity of the first note in every measure where a sforzando is before the forte and that requires knowing how long the crescendo is and the note velocity of piano and forte. Then I would know the rate at which the note velocity is changing per quarter note.

Courtesy dynamics and crescendo

This is the second method I can think of, where I just put a piano dynamic near the sforzandos and a crescendo up to the forte. You know, like how courtesy accidentals are added just to make sure that the instruments play the right notes. But will this sound right?


Orchestras listen to each other, and (hopefully) play their dynamics in context of what's going on around them. Staves in a score editor program dont! Which is why we often have to be more meticulous when writing for MuseScore than when writing for the London Symphony Orchestra.

Here's one MuseScore version of Beethoven 5 that's available online.


Note how it approaches your problem. A hidden 'mp' and crescendo hairpin. And yes, it sounds fine. So I suggest you do that.

(You'll have to download the file and open it in MuseScore on your computer to see the hidden information. The preview on the web page just shows what will print.)

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