Finale Forum

In the attached, is it necessary to show the circled (outgoing) quarter rest in layer 2?

I would say no (nor the preceding one). Voices come and go in piano music (unless it's a fugue or something).

That's what I was thinking, but I needed to have the opinion of my betters!

Many thanks.

if the music is meant to be played with pedal, I don't even think I'd bother making the bottom note a quarter, I'd just make it an 8th and have it share the stem and beam with the upper note.

Thanks, but I'm just copying the score. No room for adjustments; just correct things like a rest that the original didn't hide!

Definitely, neither quarter rest in the alto is necessary or desirable. The general rule in keyboard music is to leave out all rests that are not necessary to understand the rhythm. As Motet says, voices come and go in keyboard music, and the page would be overwhelmed with such rests if employed. Look through standard keyboard music and you will see what the conventions are. Knowledgable composers leave out as much as possible to simplify the notation and not only rests. Only if a piece or section is in strictly defined voices, like a fugue, are rests used rigorously. And if you look through Bach's manuscripts, you will see that he was a little less rigorous about the rests than many modern editors.

Too bad the Finale "Voice 1/2" feature is only available from Speedy entry. You can very often use that instead of layers and there are no rests to hide. The quarter-note D below was entered by putting the cursor on the high D, switching voices, and entering the lower note.

OK, I'll give points to Speedy for that one!

Yes, I can't believe MM hasn't, in all these years, made Voice 1/2 available in simple entry as well. It really would be a time saver!

20 years in, and I still use Voices very rarely. It wreaks havoc with Type (lyrics) Into Score, and somehow never puts the stem directions the way I want them on its own.

More appropriate for keyboard music than vocal music.