I was curious if I could get some guidance here. When I condense my choir staves down to two players per stave, there is a redundant Lyric placement
that is quite combersome and uneeded. Is there a settin that might just leave ome line of lryic text under the condensed stave instead of one above and below?
Youâll probably get a shared line of lyrics if you can get the condensing result into one voice.
If you want to keep this in 2 voices (both up-stem and down-stem) then consider only giving one part the lyrics.
If you donât need the voice parts to appear on a different number of staves in some layouts (eg if you want to keep them on 4 staves in the vocal score but squish them into 2 in the full score) then it might be worth considering handling this manually, rather than using the automatic condensing feature, as that gives you more control over the result.
Thanks for this Lillie. When you say handle this manually, how would you go about this without creating more staves or separate parts?
T
I mean using two staves from the outset for S/A and T/B, if you donât need them to be on 4 staves in some layouts (eg a vocal score)
If youâre not actually creating multiple layouts with different staves, then I wouldnât bother using Condensing. Just put the music onto two voices of the same staff. (In fact, for a unison passage, you donât even need the second voice. Just a text object saying âT +Bâ or similar.)
Thanks again Lillie!
Here is what worked for me, and pretty quickly I might add.
I started with the sperate choir parts and took off score condensing. I then added a new section player ( Choir Reduction). This gave me the two staves. I then copied S,A and reduced their parts into the top stave. Did the same with the T,B into the bottom. It took care of the lyrics automatically. Done. Any other adjustments to be made could be done in post with engrave mode. That worked well for me at least.
Thanks again!
T
Sorry to hop on late here, but I think this would be a fantastic feature to add to condensing: the ability to selectively hide a staffâs lyrics. The condensing feature is extremely capable andâŚ. Almost there with vocal music. I run into situations where I do need to keep voices distinct (for the purposes of practice tracks) as well as condensed, for scores.
One way I have tried in the past is to use cues with full sized notes to condense, but itâs rather finicky.
The Team has indicated that they want to give proper support to choral condensing in the past. It just hasnât happened yet. As it happens, some of the members of the dev. team are (or were, at least) very involved in choral music making, so this would touch close to home, even.
If I had to hazard a guess, part of the reason this hasnât been dealt with yet is because itâs very easy to get the desired result with some manual editing, unlike certain other issues which cannot really be worked around satisfactorily.
And when the feature appears, no doubt it will be a graceful solution that pleasantly surprises us.
Iâve got the same struggle. Iâm really new to Dorico and I need to know how best to combine some SA, TB into one line and leave other lines in individual lines. Iâve tried using Condense but end up with the two lyric lines (and duplicate notes, even though theyâre in unison). I then tried to do the reduction as suggested, but I donât know how to get the two lines onto one. I also think that would cause me problems later on when I want to revert back to four systems. Please help - Iâm tearing out my hair! Thanks!
Kathy,
When you say later on, do you mean later on in one score (but not in others), or do you mean that some layouts will use two staves occasionally while others are four staves all the time?
For example, I could see compressing four staves into two when possible in the conductorâs score but always using four staves in the chorus score. Is that what you mean?
How you intend to use the compressed passages may determine the best solutions to your question.
Thanks for the reply! What I have done for decades in Finale was to condense scores when SA &/or TB have the same rhythms and lyrics, but when it would be confusing (i.e. different rhythms & lyrics) to move into four staves. It saves a lot of trees 
for now you need to have your separate S A T B and then also have a âchoirâ instrument (piano without intersecting bar lines) or two additional voice instruments that you rename SA TB. Then, when you want a condensed score, you pot the relevant notes and a single set of lyrics over to the condensed instruments. Itâs best to affect these changes at system breaks. Only add notes into the condensed version where you need them (admittedly, itâs manual labor, but it gives you the result youâre after) and then use the âhide empty stavesâ option to keep that part hidden whenever itâs not being used.
Alternatively, you can create a single voice instrument, and then use the divisi feature to split it into more than one at the very beginning, and split and combine as desired. For this approach, do two section âvoicesâ so you can alternate S A and SA, and the same for the men.
Your answer is similar to @Dilorenzo answer above: âI started with the separate choir parts and took off score condensing. I then added a new section player ( Choir Reduction). This gave me the two staves. I then copied S,A and reduced their parts into the top stave. Did the same with the T,B into the bottom. It took care of the lyrics automatically.â How do I âcopy S,A and reduce their partsâ.
Have you tried copy/Paste Special > Reduce. If you are combining parts where the rhythm is identical, that should work. Where voices diverge slightly in rhythm, one can adapt those small sections to multiple voices on the same staff.
You could do a similar thing to Finale, without using Condensing. Dorico has a Choir âinstrumentâ on two staves, which you could use for those sections, with the Altos and Basses in Down-Stem voices. (Or even just use the Soprano and Bass staves with a bracket change).
You might need to use Manual Staff Visibility changes to hide and reveal the staves you want (or turn on Hiding for Empty staves in Layout Options).
It means that youâll have to manually decide where systems breaks and where these changes occur; but it avoids the problems of using Condensing, which is really for instruments when you want them to be separate in the parts but together on one staff in the score.
Thanks! Although a bit finicky because of different lyric lines and not wanting to show rests in the second voice is most of the notes in that measure are the same, it worked. Appreciate the help
Thanks! I didnât even know about the âPaste Specialâ.
If the rests are the same in both voices, they will automatically align. You can always Edit > Remove Rests if you want to hide rests in either voice.
Dorico is much better at lyric verse positioning than Finale. If each part requires different lyrics, then you probably donât want closed score anyway!
