Key Signature for Transposing Instruments

Hi - I saw this in Sibelius and am trying to replicate it in Dorico. If I have a transposing instrument, say an English Horn, I notice when I change to transposing score, Dorico will automatically apply a key signature to the staff for the E.H. (if I’m in Cmaj, it’ll change the key sig for the E.H. staff to Gmaj). However, is there a way to keep the key signature in Cmaj and instead use sharps / flats when writing the notes? I couldn’t find any option to do this. Thanks!

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yes, this is particularly useful for non-tonal scores, as well.
I’d like to know. I’m sure it can be done.

Well, it wouldn’t be Cmaj per se, just a no Key Sig. Horns have this as an option but for other instruments there is a workaround. Create a local Atonal Key Sig. Select the first note/rest of the EH, invoke the Key Sig popover <shift>K. Type Atonal in the box then press <alt><enter>.

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Thank you! Perfect!

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does setting the key signature to “atonal” for the whole score put all transposing instruments as “transposed but with no key signature”?

That’s exactly what it does!

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awesome, thank-you.

it’s a bit of a learning curve… or rather an UN-learning curve, moving from Finale to Dorico!

In Finale one sets each staff’s appearance for transposition.

This method with Dorico seems more efficient.

A global Atonal Key Sig will make all sharps and flats explicitly shown whether the instrument is transposing or not.

I’m sorry, I’m not sure I’m understanding you here. do you mean it will also put accidentals on repeated notes with the same accidental within a measure?

No, it won’t, albeit you have options for that if you want to:

No, it means that since there is no Key Sig there is no tonal center. So if you have a piece in G maj and you change the Key Sig to Atonal, F# will show as an accidental in a concert pitch instrument. Standard rules for accidentals in a measure still apply.

My point was that accidentals don’t apply only to transposing instruments.

A bit an old thread but I had the issue just now with an English horn score having no Key signature .

It maybe easier to go to the set up for the instrument by clicking the three …bew to the name and then pressing “Edit Instrument definition” in Transposition block you simply unhook the “use key signature” and you are done.

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Yes, that is an option as of 5.0. When this thread was posted that option didn’t exist. But, it’s good to have that updated info here for future reference.