When condensed staves appear it would be really nice to have a condensed galley view. This would combine all things like what page view does (including instrument changes, condensed staves, and whatever else) but without the system and frame break thus saving a lot of vertical space.
I wouldn’t mind if this was for viewing during playback only and didn’t support editing or entry. Maybe even have an option to auto switch between condensed/uncondensed views when playback starts/stops.
Perhaps something like this:
?
Galley view won’t make sense with condensed staves because the condensation will often change system to system. We are considering a view that will show both the condensed staves and their source staves, where each system will effectively be its own “page”, which will be a kind of cross between galley view and page view. But it won’t be very much like page view. Page view will show only the condensed staves, and galley view will show only the source staves.
Not sure I understand condensed staves then. Seems if you have a staff that condenses, then in page view that staff is a single staff regardless of how it is condensed. So in a condensed galley view you have a single staff for any staves that have music in them. Thus reducing the vertical space to a single staff per player/section. In a condensed galley view there is only one system so how can it change from system to system. I understand in page view this is the case, but not in galley view.
I was more interested in reducing the vertical space when playing back to see more music in a limited vertical screen size (like a laptop). As its is I am constantly pushing the image up and down as it scrolls by to see what is playing in a given section. This will only get worse with condensed staves.
No, it’s certainly not necessarily the case that there will only be a single staff when music is condensed. Consider four horns: there may be one staff, if all four horns are playing in unison (or at least in rhythmic unison, with no notes for a horn with a higher number being pitched higher than a note played by a horn with a lower number), or there may be two staves, if (say) horns 1 and 2 can be condensed onto one staff and horns 3 and 4 can be condensed onto another; or there could be three staves, if (say) horn 1 and horn 2 cannot be condensed because horn 2 crosses above horn 1 too many times, but horns 3 and 4 can be condensed onto one staff; or there could be four staves, because none of the music for horns can be condensed at all. And this can change from system to system, because the condensation is dynamic, and worked out phrase by phrase, then system by system.
OK, I see. I was assuming that one had to define which staves were to be condensed and then one had to write it so that it would work and if it didn’t condense then yo had to make adjustments until it did. You’re saying it’s much more automatic than that.
I’ll just wait and see how all this develops then.
Wow, that sounds quite impressive! And the ability to condense all the way down to your example of 1 horn staff for 4 horns will be especially useful for a number of opera scores where condensing and removing empty staves is the name of the game.
I wonder, though, in straight orchestral scores, unless it becomes ridiculous to do so it’s often the case that no empty staves are removed, and nothing is condensed beyond a certain point; for instance, 2 clarinet staves for 3 clarinets of the same type are initially presented, and so for the remainder, either 2 or 3 staves might be shown, but never 1. And likewise for everyone else. There’s a little more to it than that, but the minutiae isn’t germane to what I’m wondering, which is:
Will it be possible to specify a maximum amount of condensation (i.e. a minimum number of staves) for a given grouping?
Yes, in principle, you’ll be able to specify the maximum allowed condensation. Exactly how that will work is as yet not completely decided.
Well, the feature sounds like it will be everything I want it to be and everything I didn’t know I wanted it to be. You do know that it’s not Christmas again for another 10 months, yes? 
As long as we’re throwing feature requests around, can I request that it also be possible for those horns to group into 1/3 and 2/4? That’s very common, especially with older composers…
Yes, we plan to make it possible to handle interlocking horns, and various other special cases, like trombone and tuba being condensable together, despite not being the same kind of instrument.