I’ve made a Piano Duet score of Fauré’s Dolly suite, primarily to have an example of a layout with Primo and Secondo** on facing pages. I’ll be putting it on my website in due course, but I thought I would welcome any constructive criticism from pianists who are used to playing this sort of thing.
It was hard enough to ‘sync’ the page turns without actually considering the optimum place for those turns – that’s probably the biggest issue.
The Layout occasionally goes awry, with the First page templates not showing up sometimes; and the last few pages disappearing. Switching to Print mode and back fixes it.
** Though for some reason, the original publication uses Prima and Seconda.
Thanks very much for sharing this, @benwiggy, it’s wonderful!
If I may, just 3 tiny remarks:
The vertical justification in your headers frames for the default pages is not symmetrical (Prima: top, Seconda: Center).
I would use the “Optical spacing for beams between staves” layout option. It’s a really great feature for piano writing.
Examples of without (as it is)/with:
It’s a bit puzzling that the cautionary accidentals are in parentheses, because that’s really not standard practice— I think I’ve never seen that, or only extremely rarely.. I just checked the original, and indeed, there are no parentheses:
I think most of the four‑hand pieces I’ve played were in Italian format (landscape). That’s the way Henle or Peters publishes them. To me it’s visually a bit more comfortable because when you play four‑hand, you’re quite far from the center!
But indeed, some publishers (mainly French ones) still publish them in portrait.
For example, Bizet’s Jeux d’enfants, Durand vs Henle
Furthermore, all the frames on the left and right sides of the first page template have different position values.
As the functions of the ‘First Page’ template are unreliable (even after switching to print mode and back), I would apply the ‘First’ page template of each flow by force. Alternatively, I would not use the ‘First Page’ template at all and work with flow headings instead.
having played a lot of 4-mains music over the course of my career both as a concertist and as a teacher, I must say that I don’t care for landscape pages for this sort of score. It makes for wider page turns, clunky and clumsy, and prone to tearing.
@benwiggy As you know, page turns are crucial for piano duets since they are most often performed with the music. I think it advisable to restore the layout in nos. 4 and 6 from the first edition because of the page turns. If you compare to the composer’s manuscript of no. 6 you will see that the first edition adheres closely to Faure’s layout. Faure even stops in the middle of final lines on several of the prima pages to show the exact point for the page turn.
Also I think it inadvisable to revise Faure’s beaming in no. 2 of the three-note eighth note groups to flag the first note. This works against the unity of the groups.
I’m glad you chose this piece, Ben. I think it is one of the greatest works in the repertoire. No. 5 gets me every time. Unbelievably moving.
