Create part layout for two players similar to a two-stave instrument

[tomaeto]

I was looking to create a part layout for two clarinet players in an orchestral score, similar to this:

Most dynamics and rests are identical, so they are “omitted” for the second clarinet.

Here is what I have so far:

I manually deleted the dynamics in the second clarinet and moved the remaining dynamics to center them vertically. For the multi-bar rest I didn’t know how to adjust their visibility and position in Engrave mode.

When I write something for piano, Dorico automatically centers the dynamics and writes the numbers for the multi-bar rest only once.

Is it possible to treat the two-clarinet-part similarly?

[Zalde]

I’d hate to be the clarinet player who has to play the bottom staff from that part. Actually I’d bet that if a human has to play that, first thing they’d do is write all those dynamics below the staff. I’d also bet that original layout was not conjured up by a wind player.

Having said that, if you really want this, I would not delete dynamics etc. because that will also delete them in the score. I’d go one step further and add a Piano to the score, set its transposition to Bb, change the bottom staff to treble clef and copy/paste the music from the clarinet staves in there (paste the bottom staff without dynamics). You can then hide that “piano” from the full score and further tweak the part the way you want.

[tomaeto]

@Zalde

I’d hate to be the clarinet player who has to play the bottom staff from that part. Actually I’d bet that if a human has to play that, first thing they’d do is write all those dynamics below the staff. I’d also bet that original layout was not conjured up by a wind player.

Is it really that bad? I’m playing the bottom part myself and kinda liked the clean aesthetic, especially since there is not a single measure where the second clarinet has a different dynamic than the first clarinet; but maybe some of my piano education is coming in handy now

@Zalde

Having said that, if you really want this, I would not delete dynamics etc. because that will also delete them in the score.

It’s kind of frustrating that Dorico has a “Hide intensity marking” in the Engraving options that doesn’t apply to crescendos / decrescendos. At least that way I could change their visibility locally

@Zalde

I’d go one step further and add a Piano to the score, set its transposition to Bb, change the bottom staff to treble clef and copy/paste the music from the clarinet staves in there (paste the bottom staff without dynamics). You can then hide that “piano” from the full score and further tweak the part the way you want.

Probably no way around this. Having something akin to cue notes where you just say what stave to mirror in a different stave would come in handy.

[Zalde]

@tomaeto

Is it really that bad?

Well, hate is a strong word (sorry about that) but I’d definitely pencil in the dynamics below the staff. It might be different for people who are also pianists (I took lessons for a number of yeras but that’s a lifetime ago) but in general I think wind players will naturally look below the staff for dynamics and such when there is only one voice in the staff.

@tomaeto

Having something akin to cue notes

I guess you could use cues now, but that would be just as much or even more work to tweak them compared to the fake piano player.