Automatic page breaks?

Dorico
1

In Instrumental Part Layout it is helpful to set several pause bars on each right side to give the player enough time to turn the pages. Sibelius often helps, but the author has to do the rework himself. Are there any considerations for this difficult task at Dorico? If this is an old issue, I’m sorry, but I think many music writers are familiar with this problem.

Eggi

2

I can’t instantly dig up the last thread where this came up, but it’s definitely been discussed here (or perhaps on the Facebook group). There’s no automated feature for this in Dorico yet, but I’d assume that when it comes along it’ll be way more intelligent than the way Sibelius does it. It’s tricky though. The questions that I think an automated system should be considering are:

  1. What’s the tempo?
  2. How long does it take for that player to turn a page? (pianists are quick; double bass players are slow)
  3. Is it a solo player or a section player? (If it’s a section player then good page turns matter less)
  4. If it’s a section player, is it in divisi? (If so, good page turns matter more)
  5. Could a better result be achieved by inserting a blank page in the layout?
  6. (Now getting into a fantasy world) Are there appropriate cheats on this instrument, e.g. can this flautist play that long note with one hand?

The point is, Sibelius only thinks about “minimum number of rests”. It doesn’t think about what time signature you’re in, or what tempo you’re at, and so you end up having to redo the work yourself. A Sibelius-style solution would be (I’m guessing!) relatively easy to implement in Dorico, but Dorico doesn’t do mediocre solutions, and good solutions take time.

3

Thanks for the quick answer.
I would not be able to solve this problem quickly either. You’re really right. The best way is, the composer should pay attention to it immediately when it comes to instrumentation and layout. I will soon be orchestrating a piano concerto and it’s up to me how the notes will look in the end.
Nevertheless thanks pianoleo

4

I can imagine Dorico’s taking rests + tempo into account in a similar way to how it gives suggestions for cues, i.e. taking either numbers of rests into account or rest time based on tempo.