A No Key Signature instrument?

Dorico
1

I’m attempting to emulate the orchestral score of Jean Sibelius’s Tapiola (see it on IMSLP).

In the style of the time (1926) Brass instruments and the Bass Clarinet are shown on the (transposing) full score as having no key signature.

I can kinda hack this by saying in my custom full score layout that e.g. the Bass Clarinet sounds a C as a D ( Flutes and Violins etc. have a key signature of B minor) but this doesn’t seem right and what’s more, Dorico changes the Instrument Name on the Staff to Bass Clarinet in D.

Is there a proper way to do this?

i.e. to define a Bass Clarinet that is both:

  • a transposing instrument

  • and whose staff has no key signature.

2

Select a local key signature for that staff using ‘open’ in the popover. (Hold ALT when pressing Enter, to make it a local change.)

3

Looking again at the user guide I can see that there are “No Sig “ versions of horn and trumpet instrument choices ,but not for Bass Clarinet.

(Messages crossed. Thanks @benwiggy )

4

I’ll try that. Thanks.

Tried. Works just the job! :grinning:

5

But Ah! Yes, it’s local in the sense that it’s local to the Bass Clarinet staff. But it’s global in the sense that it changes the key signature of the Bass Clarinet staff in the Concert Pitch non-transposing full score as well as the Transposing Full Score.

So now my (non-transposing) full score has all the staves in two sharps … except the atonal Bass Clarinet.

I was hoping to achieve:

  1. Replica (transposing) score per Jean Sibelius original

  2. A purely concert pitch (Non-transposing) full score easier for me to see harmony

.

6

Try using a Transposition change for the Concert pitch score to an actual key? (Right click on the Layout in Setup mode.)

7

When I tried that before I changed the "Sounds as " note name and Dorico (un)helpfully changed the Staff name to that sounding note name.

No matter. I think I can get 2 workable full scores:

  1. Replica

  2. Readable

8

Does it strike anyone else that the troublesome score was written by — Sibelius? :smiling_imp:

1 Like
9

That should just be a matter of flicking the switch between Transposing and Concert view.

You can change transposition and clef of instruments, but not the actual key (I think - I’m sure someone will correct me.)

10

Thank you for the solution. Hold ALT when pressing Enter!