Reset instrument names?

[VIPStephan]

I’m a little confused about player/instrument naming here and hope you can clarify something for me.

I’ve imported a MusicXML file from Finale and it imported the instrument/player names, too. Since I’m using the German localization/version of both applications it imported the names in German, which is fine. When selecting instruments, Dorico only seems to provide names in English at the moment, which I don’t mind. However, this is interfering with the voice numbering if I’m adding more instruments/voices because the numbering relies on the instrument/player name, and they are different now (German/English).

I know I can reset the player names to the instrument names but how can I reset the instrument names themselves? For example, there is a bug (I suppose) where the German names of Eb instruments like Eb clarinet or Alto saxophone aren’t correctly imported. In Finale the instruments are called and displayed as “Klarinette in Es” and “Altsaxophon in Es”, respectively. In Dorico the player names are exactly that but the instrument names are converted to “Klarinettes” and “Altsaxophons”, respectively.

I made the mistake of renaming the instrument for the Eb clarinet and setting it as standard for this instrument because somehow I couldn’t find (or overlooked) the Eb clarinet in the instrument selection dialog. Now I seem to have an extra instrument “Klarinette in Es” in between all the English instrument names. Additionally, in the standard clarinet instrument I can select the transpositions A, Ab, C, D, Eb, and Bb, but in the extra clarinet instrument I have now, there are also transpositions to choose from, but Bb is missing. Is this a bug?

How can I delete this extra instrument and/or reset the instrument name that I set to default previously?

Also, in the list of brass instruments there is an instrument called “Cornet” with A and Bb transpositions and an instrument called “Cornett” with C and D transpositions. WTF?

And why are “Trombone” and “Tenor Trombone” two different instruments in Dorico when there is no difference with regards to transposition?

I’d be grateful for any clarification.

[Rob_Tuley]

@VIPStephan

Also, in the list of brass instruments there is an instrument called “Cornet” with A and Bb transpositions and an instrument called “Cornett” with C and D transpositions. WTF?

And why are “Trombone” and “Tenor Trombone” two different instruments in Dorico when there is no difference with regards to transposition?

A “Cornet” is a brass instrument, similar to a trumpet. The standard key is Bb, but in the 19th century they had a device to transpose the instrument into A. (In fact, the A transposition was notoriously out of tune, and Sullivan intentionally used that fact in the Savoy Opera “The Mikado” when the hero goes into hiding playing Third Trombone in the local town band. The joke of an out-of-tune duet for cornets in A is completely lost if the parts are played in tune on modern trumpets!)

A “Cornett” is a medieval wind instrument - “hybrid” with a brass instrument mouthpiece, but with finger holes along the tube instead of valves. Cornetts were often used in combination with Sackbuts (medieval trombones) since these were the only brass instruments in that period which could play a full chromatic scale instead of just the harmonic series of notes produced by an instrument with no valves.

The name “tenor trombone” makes sense for ensembles with several sizes of trombones (alto, tenor, and bass) which were all used in 19th century orchestras (and before that time, there were even more members of the trombone family extending the range both up and down). Otherwise, the simpler name “trombone” means the tenor instrument.

Similarly for clarinets: the name “Clarinet” usually means “Clarinet in Bb” when there is no ambiguity. The most common modern clarinets are in Bb, A, and Eb.

[VIPStephan]

@Rob Tuley

A “Cornett” is a medieval wind instrument - “hybrid” with a brass instrument mouthpiece, but with finger holes along the tube instead of valves.

Ah, I see, that would be what is commonly called “Zink” in German. Interestingly, in my list of instruments, there is both, a Cornett, and a Zink. I’m getting the feeling that something went wrong during the last update, perhaps some plist file got corrupted? Because I also seem to remember that I used to have German instrument names before (and I saw people use German names in other threads here).

@Rob Tuley

The name “tenor trombone” makes sense for ensembles with several sizes of trombones (alto, tenor, and bass) which were all used in 19th century orchestras (and before that time, there were even more members of the trombone family extending the range both up and down). Otherwise, the simpler name “trombone” means the tenor instrument.

Yes but you can rename the player to whatever you like after adding the instrument. I could only understand this difference if different audio samples were used, e. g. a “classical” trombone playing technique for “Tenor Trombone” and a jazz playing technique for “Trombone”. Is that the case?

@Rob Tuley

Similarly for clarinets: the name “Clarinet” usually means “Clarinet in Bb” when there is no ambiguity. The most common modern clarinets are in Bb, A, and Eb.

I know that but I have “Clarinet” with all the transpositions to choose from, and I have a (redundant) “Klarinette in Es”. I’d like to get rid of that.

[Rob_Tuley]

“Zink” is also used in English. (We borrow a lot of foreign instrument names, like “Cor anglais” for “Englisch Horn”!)

I suppose the instrument list in Dorico was designed so that you can just pick the name you want, without having to know that “Instrument A is really the same as Instrument B, so if I want B I can pick A and then rename it”.

[VIPStephan]

OK, now that this is clarified, can we get back to the actual issue? All the instrument names are in English (I seem to remember having them in German, previously, but I could be wrong), and I have a custom instrument name in the list that I’d like to get rid of. How can I do that?

[dspreadbury]

The language of instrument names is determined by the option on the Language page of Engraving Options. Unlike the other options in this dialog, this option takes effect for instruments you subsequently add to the project.

If you clicked the ‘Save as default for new instruments’ in the Edit Names dialog for an instrument and now want to remove that choice, delete the file userLibrary.xml found in ~/Library/Application Support/Steinberg/Dorico (Mac) or %APPDATA%\Steinberg\Dorico (Windows).

If you want to change the language of existing instrument names from English to German, try using Change Instrument for those instruments to replace the current one with the same one: hopefully this will update the name.

[VIPStephan]

Thank you so much, Daniel, it works.
However, the language setting you mentioned seems to be project related and doesn’t seem to be saved globally; i. e. everytime I create a new project or restart Dorico, it’s back to English. Not a major issue but I find it strange (and a little annoying, to be honest). Perhaps that’s something to reconsider for a future update?

[dspreadbury]

If you click ‘Save as Defaults’ in Engraving Options, then that choice – along with every other choice in the Engraving Options dialog – will be saved as your default choice for new projects.

[VIPStephan]

Ah, there. Thanks a lot.