Spoken 'Narrator' part

Dorico
#1

I am typesetting a piece for orchestra with narrator.

The Narrator part is spoken, mostly not in rhythm, but sometimes in rhythm.

I would like to have the non-rhythmic (ie most of the) narration in boxed text at the top of the page, and as system text so it extracts to all the instrumental parts. But where it is not rhythmical I don’t want to have a Narrator stave.

For the bits where the narration is in rhythm, I’d like to have a single-line stave with the words as lyrics below the staff. I also need this to extract to all the instrumental parts.

I managed to achieve these effects in the original Sibelius typesetting, but not sure the best way to manage all these things in Dorico. Any suggestions very welcome.

Thanks in advance. Bernard

#2
  1. In Setup mode, add Player holding a one-line instrument (anything you like from the unpitched percussion section). Then right-click on the instrument and change its name to Narrator. Use that for rhythmic narration.
  2. Go into Layout Options, and then to the Vertical Spacing category. At the very bottom of that dialog (scroll down) use the Hide Empty Staves section to ensure that the Narrator “instrument” doesn’t appear unless needed [having set this, if you need to get that stave back just go into Galley view and enter the notes there]
  3. Use Shift+Alt+X text for system text that appears in all the parts.
  4. In Setup mode, Shift-click all of the parts in the right panel, then tick the Narrator in the left panel. That will add the Narrator stave to all of the parts. You’ll need to rename the part layouts in the right panel so that they say “Violin” rather than “Violin + Narrator”.
#3

Perfect thanks @pianoleo