Percussion in orchestral score

How should the percussion instruments be listed in an orchestral score so they are correctly labelled? In Set Up, I designated 1 percussion player with 5 instruments. (Even when it takes more than one player to play the percussion part, it is often shown as one player so all percussion players see the full percussion part). The first entry of cymbals in not labelled at all in bar 23. The last page shows 3 percussion lines but the bass drum (last bar) is not labelled. Score attached. Thanks in advance, Robert

percussion-in-orchestral-score.dorico (2.7 MB)

Hi @Robert_Smallwood, for this particular situation (since you are using the perc. instruments sparsely), I would suggest following setup/workflow:

  • in Setup mode right click in the Percussion player and choose Combine Instruments into kit

  • click on the three little dots and Edit Instrument Definition. Set the number of lines to 1.

  • in Layout Options>Players>Percussion, set the 5-line staff visualisation for the desired layouts (Score and percussion layout)

  • now (since you have a kit) you can take advantage of the Percussion Legends (Legend for Sounding Instruments) functionality (you can set a shortcut for it, in Preferences>Key Commands): select a note of the percussion and use your shortcut, or right click>Percussion>Legend for Sounding Instruments. Repeat this for every note (but you don’t have many).

  • copy the legends to the part layout: select one legend in the score, do Select More a couple of times, then copy. Switch to the part layout (with W), select the first note and paste the legends there all at once.

Screenshots: (click to expand)

Dorico file example (I made also an extra layout with all percussions in it):
percussion-in-orchestral-score-ALTERNATIVE PERCUSSION SETUP and LAYOUT.dorico (2.3 MB)

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Thank you Christian. You have helped me several times. Even as I think I am getting to know Dorico, new challenges arise.

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You are welcome, @Robert_Smallwood. And yes: Dorico possibilities are vast, but very customisable :slight_smile: