I’m working with a turn of the century score which has the Horns in B flat, C, D, E, E flat, and F. In transposing all these to F I first merged all the Horn 1, 2, 3, 4 players, then I edited the individual instruments transpositions to F3. I created a custom condensing groups of Horn 1 & 2 and Horn 3 & 4.
Unfortunately, the condensing only works when there are no notes in the relative staves. Once notes are entered, the condensing feature does not work.
Would appreciate guidance if anyone has encountered similiar problems.
If it were me, I would move all of the music for each player into a single instrument and delete the extra instruments; that would make the score less complex and also seems to make condensing work as expected. (And makes it easier to diagnose any issues.)
If you are wanting a ‘modern’ score without lots of horn transpositions, I would do much as @asherber suggests.
To each player I would add a number of horns with the needed transpositions. Enter the notes for each at transposed pitch. Then move them into a single instrument (Dorico will handle all the transpositions for you)…
I think what I would have done if I were working this from scratch is only give each player one instrument to begin with. If it starts with Horn in Bb, for example, then give the player a horn in Bb and enter all the transposed notes. If the next section is for Horn in D, then use Change Instrument to change the single instrument to a horn in D, and enter those notes (again, in transposed pitch). When everything has been entered, change the instrument to the desired horn in F.
The final result would be the same as if you had given the player one instrument in each transposition and then moved the music into a single instrument.
You are using separate horn instruments, but I do not think that is what @asherber is doing. I believe he is taking one part, adding the notes in the first “key” of the horn, but then changing the instrument from a D instrument to an F instrument. All the notes formerly entered will transpose as if the original instrument were in F, but that isn’t important, because he won’t be changing those notes.
Once the notes from the F crook have been entered, he will changer the one instrument to one in E (as shown in your diagram) to add the notes from that passage and then to one in Eb.
At the end, he changes the transposition to Horn in F, and all those notes entered in the different iterations of the instrument show with an F transposition.
So he doesn’t start out with four alternate instruments; it’s always the same instrument that he keeps changing using the Change Instrument option.
@Derrek is correct about what I was saying – if I were starting from scratch, I would give each player one instrument only and just keep changing the (single) instrument as needed. I think this winds up being easier to manage than giving each player an instrument for each transposition and then moving the music into a single instrument at the end.
I use the multiple instruments per player approach because that is how the originals were written. And for me it is easier to ensure the notes are kept with the correct player.
Whichever approach, I think the important point is to start from the correct instrument definition and enter notes at transposed pitch. Thus avoiding the need for any later transposition problems.
Yes, agreed. I think this is what the OP did (instruments in each key), but then I think he used Edit Instrument Definition to change the transposition of each instrument to F. As you note, this isn’t really necessary; you just need to move all of the music into the instrument that’s already in F.
