String divisi: switching between one and two staves

Dorico
1

Hi all,

as an example, the first violins in my long orchestral score sometimes just need one staff, and sometimes two because of intricate divisi’s.

I found the option to expand the instrument to two staves by rightclick > staff > change divisi. And the same way to restore the unision.

However, I need this various times in my score. And then for the other strings as well.

Is there an easier way? In Sibelius (as an example) you can “hide empty staves” to hide the unused second stave.

That would be really nice.

Thanks.

2

Under Library->Layout Options->Vertical Spacing. Also, Frame and System breaks have manual staff visibility.

Jesper

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3

If you use the right-click>staff>…divisi... methods then Dorico automatically handles the staff visibility. So I don’t understand your request.

5

You can copy & paste the divisi change signposts wherever you want.

For consistency I would really advise you to use the divisi changes as intended, that way you don’t get any surprises when the layout changes.

6

I would very much prefer to not use this way, as it is very timeconsuming. That’s why I’m looking for an easier way.

7

To speed things up, you could create key commands for change divisi and restore unison, or use the jump bar.

(Edit: or as @hrnbouma suggests, select an existing divisi/unison signpost and alt-click to copy it to a new position)

8

Thanks All. To me Jesele’s option seems to work and to be the easiest. Or will I get problems with this. (hrnbourma writes about surprises).

9

I think the main problems would be:

  1. you would have to handle the divisi labelling yourself
  2. when working in Galley view there will be many empty staves showing
  3. if your divisis change (eg. sometimes into two, other times into three, or perhaps solo/gli altri…)
10

Thanks Janus. Then probably Jesele’s way is the best.

(Labelling is in fact not really necessary. If something is in two staves, it is obviously divisi.)

11

I think you are being very short-sighted, but of course the choice is yours.

12

You’ll also have to keep track yourself of system breaks and unison bars. For example, if a divisi passage begins in the middle of a system, Dorico will show both violin staves, since neither one is completely empty. But then you’ll have to manually copy the music from one staff to the other for the bars at the beginning of the system where the music is unison. And then if the casting off changes, so that one of those bars flows backwards onto the previous page, you’ll need to catch that and delete the music from one staff in that bar.

Alternatively, you could use manual system breaks to make sure that each divisi passage starts at the beginning of a system and ends at the end of one, but this may make for unattractive horizontal spacing in places.

If you use Dorico’s native divisi functionality, then the program will automatically take care of all of this for you.