I work with full score manuscripts from the late 19th/early 20th century. Composers from that time period routinely change transpositions for transposing instruments - i.e. what starts out as a B flat Clarinet changes to an A Clarinet and then back to a B flat Clarinet and so on. These changes are most prevalent for the Horns, often changing 3 or 4 times in the course of a movement. I don’t want to create a new instrument in Set Up - I want to show the changes at the appropriate location on a single staff. Can this be done?
Welcome to the forum @dhcfield !
The way Dorico handles instrument changes is you have the same “single” player holding the instruments they need to switch between, then input the notes that should be played by each instrument on its staff (e.g. switch to galley view, where all staves are shown). Then, provided the notes don’t overlap and instrument changes are allowed, Dorico will show all their music on the same staff, with the “to X” labels shown automatically.
Lillie - thanks so much for this! I’m transitioning from Finale and while I can achieve these changes in Finale by using Staff Styles, it’s very cumbersome. This is a much, much better solution.
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Just be aware that only the first instrument listed in the Player panel will be allowed to condense (at least in versions up to 4.2).
Derrek:
Does that mean that if I start out with Horn in F, Muta in C, Muta in D, Muta back to F that the C and D staves will need to be condensed into the Horn in F since it’s the first instrument? Thanks
I don’t think so, what I believe Derrek is referring to is Dorico’s automatic condensing feature, which allows you to show e.g. Horns 1,2,3,4 all on one staff in the score (with their notes condensed into chords) but maintain separate parts, meaning you can have that same music appear as Horn 1 in the Horn 1 part, without the other horns. Same music, different presentation.
Instrument change = one person, playing multiple instruments at different times (Oboe/Cor Anglais, Clarinet/Bass Clarinet etc)
Condensing = multiple people, each playing one instrument
Keep in mind that if both Horns 1 & 2 both change their crooks (effectively changing to another instrument), which is quite usual in classical scores, unfortunately, they will not condense to the same staff in the score anymore, which is a pity, of course, and a limitation that we hope will be fixed eventually.
A workaround may be to create technically separate players for each type of horn, and put them together in the same horn part, where you hide empty staves for those not playing. In that case, you’ll have to take care of instrument change indications manually.
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