I am trying to recreate a score I began working on with Dorico 1.0, because when I initially started the score, I failed to truly understand the reason/differences between solo player and section player. After listening to Daniel’s interview on Scoring Notes, I now remember VERY clearly the statement “Solo players can double, while section players can divide, although not yet.” At the time, this comment meant very little to me, and therefore I NEVER took it into consideration. Now that we are at a place where Divisi is available, this idea between section players and solo players makes so much more sense.
The score I am trying to recreate is a hand written score of over 40 pages, where the copyist in some places “condenses” parts, other places he does not (separate staves for each part). Some places he uses stems up and stems down on the condensed stave, in some places he uses just a single voice and it is meant to be both players.
I am going to try to recreate this score right now using Divisi, so I will need section players. However, I am wondering (without tipping your hand too much) about how Dorico is planned to handle condensed staves. This score, due to its number of instruments, will be served well to do condensed staves in the future. So as I am setting up the score, should I use all section players? Or will the condensing be able to utilize both solo and section players?
And some insight about where this question comes from.
There is Flute 1 and a Flute 2… they play tutti a lot of the time, but there are few times they play divisi. Right now I am thinking I should create a “Flute” staff and try to the divisi function for the Flute 1 and Flute 2. However, trying to think ahead, when it comes to eventual staff condensing what would be the best way to “future” proof the score? Is it best for me to create a single section of Flutes and have them divisi? Or should I create 2 separate Flute section players?
I seem to remember that Daniel recommended to use solo players in order to be all set when the condensing feature comes.
And you probably want separate parts for your two flutes anyway, don’t you?
If so, input the music for two solo players. At the end create a section player Flute 1, 2, copy and merge the music from both flutes here and create divisi where necessary. Then detach the solo players from the score layout.
I’ve been inputting the first movement of Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra (partly for fun, partly for procrastination) - I’ve been having exactly the same kinds of questions.
Thanks Florian… that certainly will work for now. And I see the benefit of it. I am just hesitant to make a decision going forward because I don’t want to use solo players when I should have used section players, and section players when I should have used solo players.
I think something that would be nice and alleviate all concerns is the ability to change the player type mid-work. For instance, maybe I could right click on a player and convert to solo player or convert to section player. If one of the items exist in the score that goes against the design philosophy (a player doubling, for instance) that a warning pops up saying “this player is not eligible to be changed”.
Just a thought though. I am sure the team is way ahead of any of these kinds of things.
For what it’s worth: you can always create a new player of the other type and drag the instrument of the player you want to change there. This way nothing gets lost and it’s fairly quick.
Perhaps this is a dumb question, but how can I detach a player from a full score? (I want to hide it, but do not want to remove it for later usage.)
I created for a condensed full score additional section players for all the woodwind and brass players after I have created a score with solo players.
Perhaps Daniel’s description could be linked into the Frequently Asked Question section on the top forum’s page?
You just need to uncheck the Full score layout while having the player selected while in Setup mode, or vice versa: uncheck the player while selecting the layout.
