Classical orchestra template

Minor issue, and a no-brainer to solve in Setup Mode, but when I choose the pre-defined Classical Orchestra template for a new score, it gives me only single woodwinds, 1 horn and 1 trumpet. I’d expect two of each.

So now, hooray, we can save our own templates!

Yeah certainly not a big issue, but Dorico is so good at always doing the right thing it’s jarring to see the templates have issues.

I believe historical classical orchestras mostly had at least doubles of those parts. Perusal of Beethoven 5 shows this, including contrabasson, 1 piccolo and three trombones.

Related thread

Modern Orchestra clarinet section notes

I am not sure that there was a standard classical orchestra. The list of instruments of Beethoven V already includes instruments that Haydn and Mozart didnt use in their symphonies, and in other works Beethoven didnt always use more than one flute. The clarinet was a new instrument for Haydn and Mozart, and only used in their latest works. The number of horns varied from 2 to 4, and often there were no trumpets or drums, etc.

All that said, it might make more sense to define templates in categories like, e.g.:

single woodwind
double wind (with two horns and two trumpets that could be deleted)
quadruple wind
etc.

David

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if you look at the “Romantic Orchestra”, there are also only single woodwind which I find a bit odd. And “modern orchestra” which actually means next to nothing suddenly gets lot of everything. It’s only a starting point after all – it’s probably quicker to define your own orchestra. @david-p is most certainly right when he says there’s no such thing as a standard classical orchestra and his approach to classification seems to make the most sense to me.

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