I’ve created a score that has the usual 5 part string orchestra arrangement. Mid-way through each of those parts are divisi for the remainder of the piece. I had created a single part for each section including where it does divisi. However, the conductor now wants individual parts to facilitate player page turns. Sounded like a simple ask, but I’m having difficulty.
First I tried to see if you could create a layout that was just Violin Ia, for example, that would show all the unison music in the flow, as well as the top line of the divisi only. A separate part for Ib, IIa, IIb, etc through the whole string ensemble. I couldn’t find a way to do this.
Next I tried duplicating all the sections so that I have 4 violin parts, 2 violas, 2 vc, 2 cb. This makes the score a bit of a mess, but I have the previously set up score so that wasn’t a worry. The problem now is copying music from the divisi staffs wants to create a similar divisi where I paste the music. I can’t seem to get the Violin Ib music out of the original divisi part and into a new violin part that I have created.
Any solutions you can recommend? It would have been nice to find a solution that didn’t involve duplicating the file and then having to update two files if I make any changes. And also, how do you copy from a divisi part into a non-divided part?
You have a couple of options in handling the music/staves:
Keep the strings as section players with divisi, but make extra part layouts and in the Vln 1-a part layout, use manual staff visibility to hide the 1-b staff where it occurs, and vice versa in the 1-b part layout (where you probably need to be quite careful to make sure you show the 1-a staff again if they later return to unison).
Switch to separate players for each division (Vln 1-a, Vln 1-b etc) and use condensing in the full score to consolidate their staves to reduce vertical pressure.
As for copying divisi staves, it’s probably easiest to do that in chunks - e.g. copy where they’re unison up to just before the division, paste that to both staves. Then copy each staff in the division as required, separately.
OT: It depends on the context, for instance it’s quite common for recording sessions to include both Violin 1 and 2 in the same part, so the weighting can be adjusted across the entire violin section ad hoc if needed.
This is quite helpful. I think I can make option 1 work. The original score layout has all the divisi, and from the point where they divide, all strings in the band have not a single beat of rest. With a typical modern orchestra this wouldn’t be a problem as the stand partners can cover the page turns. My problem is that I’m making parts for a Baroque orchestra with 1-to-a-part strings with no shared stands, and so I need to re-jig everything from the score so that it can work.