Hello Dorico crew,
I have found that the Harp template is located inside the Pitched Percussion group. The Harp isn’t a percussion instrument.
Actually it is plucked string instrument, but since Dorico doesn’t have such group, more properly would be if you move it to
the Strings group.
You can check the following books:
Samuel Adler - The Study Of Orchestration
Peter Alexander - Professional Orchestration Vol. 1
Hector Berlioz - A Treatise Upon Modern Instrumentation And Orchestration (Revisited by Richard Strauss)
Orchestral layout typically puts harps below unpitched percussion, above keyboard instruments and strings. If there are singers, they come between harps and bowed strings (below keyboard instruments).
I don’t really understand what you’re requesting. Can you explain further?
I believe that Thurjsaz is saying the the harp should be in the strings group in the instrument picker rather than the pitched percussion group where it is currently located.
Hello Leo and Stew,
Stew got my point, but I will explain further.
I’m just requesting the Harp to placed in it’s proper group of instruments (Strings) when inserting instrument.
For example if I would like to create only Harp piece, I have to go to: Add Solo Player > Pitched Percussion > Harp the right one will be Add Solo Player > Strings > Harp.
I clearly know where, on the score sheet, the harp is positioned.
The positioning of the instruments on the score paper is related to how they are placed on the stage.
At a certain point this becomes pedantry. If one clicks to add a new player and types Harp into the search function, the program will find the Harp for you.
At some point in the future, the development Team may decide to reconfigure categories and instrument names.
You certainly DON’T want the harp down in the strings group with the Violins etc. in the full score layout. NO publisher ever puts it there. I say leave it where it is, or at most move it to a separate group with celesta, piano, etc. Definitely DON’t put it in Strings no matter how many orchestration experts say so. Yes, it has strings. No, it isn’t treated as a string instrument. (Piano, ditto.). Lutes, guitars, mandolins, dulcimers (both mountain and hammered), banjos, etc., etc., all have strings. Nobody puts THEM down in the String group!!!
Yes, it’s a compromise decision to have the harp included with pitched percussion, even though of course it’s not a percussion instrument (unless you start hitting its frame, I suppose), because that’s where it is positioned in orchestral score order. I agree that it might not be easy to find in that group if you are clicking through the instrument families, but hopefully most users will think to start typing “harp” at which point they’ll see what family Dorico has placed it in, for pragmatic reasons.
