A toolbar for searching for musical patterns in the score can be accessed by clicking on the circular icon near the right side of the toolbars in the upper right-hand corner of VHV:
Alternativly use the keyboard shortcut 4+alt-n to jump to the search toolbar directly.
Pitch searches
The first field in the search toolbar is for pitch searching. Letter names “a” through “g” are used for note names, and “r” for rest. Here is an example of searching for the pitch sequence “C D E”:
This search will cause the diatonic pitch class melodic sequence of C followed by D, followed by E to be highlighted. Note that upper-case or lower-case letters are interchangeable. Spaces are optional between notes, but spaces between notes and accidental are not allowed.
Chromatic quality
When searching by pitch name, the default method is by diatonic pitch-classes. This means
that “C” will match to C-sharp, C-natural, C-sharp, and so on. To search for a particular
chromatic version of a pitch class, add an accidental after the pitch name (using **kern
accidental syntax):
| Accidental | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
n |
Cn |
natural |
- |
C- |
flat |
# |
C# |
sharp |
-- |
C-- |
double-flat |
## |
C## |
double-sharp |
| nothing | C |
any accidental state |
Interval searches
Intervals can be searched for in the middle box on the search toolbar. Intervals are diatonic interval numbers.
| Interval | Meaning |
|---|---|
1 |
repeated note |
2 |
up a step |
-2 |
down a step |
3 |
up a third |
-3 |
down a third |
Spaces are optional between interval numbers; however, if you want to search for multi-digit intervals (such as a tenth), the current interval search does not allow them (this will be added in the future).
Rhythm searches
| Rhythm | Meaning |
|---|---|
1 |
whole note |
2 |
half note |
4 |
quarter note |
8 |
eighth note |
. |
augmentation dot |
Spaces are optional for rhythm searching. More refinement of the search string will be implemented in the future. For example “116” will be parsed as a whole note followed by a sixteenth note. Tuplet searching will be also implemented in the future, such as “6” for a triplet quarter note.
Combined searches
You can search for multiple features at the same time. Each search will be done in parallel (an “AND” search). For example, searching for the pitch sequence “cde” and the rhythm sequence “2” will match to a pitch sequence “cde” that starts on a half note (i.e., the C pitch is a half note). Since the rhythm sequence is shorter than the pitch sequence, the rhythm of the D and E pitches can be anything.
Notice that the pitch sequence “C, D, E” at the start of the second and third measure does not match because the C does not start on a half note.
Here is a similar parallel search of pitch and interval:
The pitch sequence “C, D, E” matches in the first two measures but not in the third, because the interval between the first two notes (C and D), must be a second. In the third measure the interval is a falling seventh.
Display search toolbar on VHV load from URL
Add the parameter “toolbar=search” to the VHV URL to display the search toolbar when loading VHV:
verovio.humdrum.org?toolbar=search
Searching from URL parameters
A Search can be added to the URL. This is useful if you want to load a specific file and do a search on it immediately.
| Parameter | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
p |
p=cdefg |
Search for the pitch sequence C, D, E, F, G |
i |
i=3-52` |
Search for the interval sequence 3, -5, 2 |
r |
r=4881 |
Search for the rhythm sequence 4, 8, 8, 1 |
There is also a special value for pitch: p=bach which searches
for the pitch sequence B-flat, A-natural, C-natural, B-natural:
https://verovio.humdrum.org/?k=ey&file=chorales/chor166.krn&p=bach
(check for the match highlighted in the last measure)