I am copying out a piece for Saxophone Orchestra which has 7 movements for up to 13 different instrument parts. As the piece is new and the composer keeps fiddling with the thing, I need ensure that each member of the Orchestra has the latest up to date part. I’ve tried adding the date on the bottom of the page using date tokens, but they seem to update the entire project rather than just one movement of one instrument. Can anyone recommend a method of keeping track of individual instrument versions. Or indeed, a better way of doing the entire job.
There aren’t any tokens that are flow-specific and layout-specific.
The only one that’s layout-specific is the actual layout name, which can be overtyped in the right panel of Setup mode.
By default it shows in the top left corner of the first page of each part layout, plus at the top of each subsequent (default) page in the running header.
You could replace the {@layoutname@} token on the master pages with {@stafflabelsfull@} which will show the full instrument name as it likely appears to the left of the first system in the score, which would free up {@layoutname@} for whatever you like. That token will still apply across the whole layout, though.
I appropriate one of the Score Info tokens (Copyist or Publisher) and enter a date stamp in it manually (yymmdd). It has to be done manually, and I do it at the project level, but I could have then propagated it at the start to each flow and then updated the field flow by flow as one changed. Sure, it’s a manual update, but for me it has become a minor step of my workflow.
Thanks for your replies. I’ll have to get my thinking cap on, I like both of your suggestions and the fix will lie somewhere around both methods you have recommended.
In my experience, typically in Broadway and musical theater work where there are constant revisions, the revision date goes right under the title so it is immediately very clear if everyone is using the correct version. When I’ve done this before in Dorico I’ve used the Flow Composition Year token for this and manually entered the date there when revising. It of course then updates in the Flow heading I created.
After the first performance and final revisions, the revision date can be removed when parts are reprinted or PDFs created if desired.
When receiving composer revisions, I never revise over existing work either. I give the file name a “V number” and immediately upon receiving revisions do a Save As and update the V, just in case the composer changes their mind and wants to go back to a way it was done previously. A file name sequence could be “Title V1,” which would get updated to V2, V3, etc.
Yeah, what Chien-Kwan Lin has gotten these students to do is really mind-blowing! Since it’s seasonal, here they are playing some excerpts from The Nutcracker at the Vandoren holiday hang a few years back. (I was there, this was the first time I had heard them and I was super impressed!)
Thanks for you suggestions Fred, the Eastman Ensemble are pretty impressive. No, the group I am part of and have taken over the task of tidying up and storing the music for is the Aberdeen Saxophone Orchestra (https://www.aberdeenshiresaxorchestra.co.uk). If we all turn up en masse, there are about 40 of us!
At first I thought you were talking about version control. FWIW, if anybody else is version controlling their work (great for many reasons) Perforce is the best solution for ‘creative’ assets like this. Free for five users, but takes some technical admin work to set up.
Cool ensemble! A bit OT, but do you have any saxophone VSTs that you like? I kinda hate all of them LOL! Just wondering what you are using with Dorico for saxophone ensembles.
I use Vienna Saxophones. It took a wee bit of setting up with expression maps and I was pretty much starting from scratch with my knowledge of VSTs but the results are pretty good. I produce practice audio files for the orchestra members to use and I’m happy with the results. I’m sure if I spent more time tweaking the settings it would sound pretty realistic, but for what we need it’s more than adequate.
