styling rehearsal marks for parts and score

[lemzwerg]

How exactly do I style rehearsal marks? Let's assume that I want bigger rehearsal marks in the full score, but within the parts they should be smaller. The only way I see to code this is as follows.

• For each part in the score I add a rehearsal mark using <direction system=none> together with the styling for the part.
• Using an arbitrary part, I add another series of rehearsal marks, this time using <direction system=only-top> and the styling for big rehearsal marks within the full score.

Is it really that cumbersome to get the desired layout? Do I really have to code N+1 rehearsal marks for a score with N staves?

A related question is how to realize rehearsal marks at the top and bottom (or even also the middle) of a score, which is quite common in classical music (see examples below). It looks to me as if MusicXML doesn't provide any support for that – it would be necessary to have system=only-bottom, which exists for bar numbers but not for rehearsal marks...

Mahler, symphony no. 8 (UE). Note that the bottom rehearsal mark at this very spot in the full score is below the violoncello part. Normally, it's below the double bass.

Orff, Carmina burana (Schott). Depending on the staves shown in this frenched score, one, two, or three rehearsal marks are visible.

[lemzwerg]

Any takers? I'm still interested how to encode this...

[infojunkie]

The rehearsal element has plenty of styling options, including enclosure. Is that not what you are seeking here?

[lemzwerg]

Nope. As described above, I wonder whether it is possible to have different styling options for a score and a part extracted from it, without the need to duplicate the rehearsal marks in the MusicXML file to get the desired effect.

I think this is one of the selling points of MusicXML, namely to directly extract parts from a full score, right?

The main point I'm concerned with is the necessary duplication to get a different appearance in the full score and the part. An alternative for many elements is the possibility to style them via the <defaults> element, but you can't do that for rehearsal marks.

My question is also related to the positioning within a score (i.e., having, say, three rehearsal marks as in the Orff example), which doesn't seem to be supported in MusicXML – and I'm seeking for confirmation that it is so.

[infojunkie]

Thanks for patiently explaing. So the 2 questions are:

• How to change the styling of an element (here, rehearsal) in the defaults section instead of in each instance explicitly?

• Add only-bottom (and possibly also-bottom) to system-relation - or find a different way to achieve the same result.

Yes?

[lemzwerg]

Exactly – at least I guess this is the main purpose of <defaults>, namely to have a central place to style various elements of a MusicXML file, and which can be easily accessed by applications.