Add support for Handchimes

[andy-lyttle]

Your idea

MuseScore currently has an instrument called "Hand Bells", but does not have any similar instrument for "Hand Chimes".

Handchimes are an instrument very similar to handbells, but the instrument is shaped more like a giant tuning fork rather than a bell, and it has a more pure sound with fewer overtones. Many handbell choirs have both instruments, and many pieces written for handbells also call for handchimes to be used in certain parts. Both instruments are written on the same (grand) staff, with handchime notes written with diamond note heads (and in newer scores, optionally colored red).

The notation is easy enough (the note head group can be set to Diamond, and the color set to Red if desired, and I've already written a plugin to make this easier). But if MuseScore Studio were to add support for this new instrument, how could playback be made to work? An instrument change wouldn't be appropriate, as both handbells and handchimes may be played simultaneously, sharing the same staff and differentiated only by note head group. The "pizzicato" and "arco" variants used by string instruments might be useful to think about, but triggering the change with a text element wouldn't work for the same reason. Percussion and drumset notation might be a closer analog, but multiple percussion instruments sharing a staff typically only happens with non-pitched instruments.

Where both instruments are played simultaneously, they most often would be notated on different voices (as in the example below), but this is not guaranteed. It probably isn't common, but it should be possible for handbell and handchime notes to share the same stem.

It's also possible for a piece to be written for handchimes exclusively (without handbells), using standard noteheads. In this case, the existing methods for selecting or changing instruments should work fine.

Problem to be solved

MuseScore Studio does not currently have a "Hand Chimes" instrument that can be used for playback. If it did, it's not clear how handbell and handchime notes could coexist on the same staff.

Prior art

No response

Additional context

From the Handbell & Handchime Notation Guide from the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers (AGEHR).

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