I am applying condensing to a Violin part, and it only works intermittently. In some lines I can’t come up with any idea why it wouldn’t condense.
Any way to force condensing?
Any suggestions what might be the issue here?
Welcome, @Avner_Dorman , to the forum.
Likely the part-crossing after measure 215 keys Condensing to give you separate staves. If you force a condensing break just before that measure you should find the earlier staves condense as you expect.
Condensing only automatically breaks at rests. In other cases one has to add the breaks manually, which is not difficult.
Brilliant - thank you!
Apologies for commenting on material for which I don’t know the full context, but…
Why would you, in this case? It pretty much looks like exactly the kind of part that benefits from being split up onto two staves.
Not all of it, though. There is a lot of unison playing near the beginning, and condensing might save a page turn.
It’s about the page turns. I would love to keep it this way, but there will be no page turns for a while - and since it’s already divided, it will be a practical problem. If you think my logic is incorrect, I would appreciate hearing that!
That is, for sure, the only conceivable reason. Whether it’s worth it is always a judgment call, of course. But you should keep in mind that forcing players to read this kind of material from a single staff puts quite an amount of pressure on them. And since it is an orchestra string section (or so I assume), you can assume that even in the worst case at least half of them are playing when the page is turned. So looking for the least-damaging non rest page turn opportunity may be worth investigating.
But to have an actual informed opinion/suggestion, I’d have to see the complete part.
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Do you think this is less clear? I was able to salvage a page turn there somehow…happy to send you the part if you’re willing to take a look at it. And, yes, it is for a section.
I do think the single staff is less clear for a violin section player. Conductors read from this all the time, but for the players it is much harder to parse at sight than a single line. Also switching between 1-staff divisi and separate-staff divisi is tricky for reading.
Sure, PM me. Can I assume that page size, staff size and margins are already finalised?
I agree. But what about a page turn when they’re dividing, and there’s no way to make it work?
If there’s no break in the playing, sometimes the stand partner has to turn it. So put it where they will be least missed.
Right, but the stand partner is playing a different part.
So are you saying it’s better to lose a few notes from the inner part and have the parts separated into separate lines?
Ah, oops – I guess they could work out every other stand the inside player turns, and the rest the outside player turns.
At this point I’m doing more harm than good, without seeing the whole part.
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Ok 
no worries - appreciate the input 
Leave it to the section to work it out amongst themselves! (This sort of problem happens frequently).
Actually bars 215-218 need not be divisi!
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Good point! So do you think the original version I posted is clearer than the second one?
Thank you - that really helps!