Hi! I’m really struggling to get an SATB divisi score to condense using condensing changes.
I’m not understanding the logic of system breaks and how that interacts with condensing changes.
In draft 7 of the score, I’ve put in all the changes I want, but it’s not coming out correctly. Here’s a list of the problems:
– Page 7, system 1: Sopranos are in two staves, despite both condensing changes specifying that they should share a stave.
– Page 7, system 2: Tenors are in two staves, despite the condensing change specifying that they should share a stave.
- Page 8, system 1: Sopranos are on one stave, despite the condensing change specifying that they should be on two staves.
- Page 9, system 1: Tenors are on one stave, despite the condensing change specifying that they should be on two staves.
- Page 9, system 2: Basses are on one stave, despite the condensing change specifying that they should be on two staves.
In an earlier draft, marked as ‘system hack’, I tried to solve this issue by using system breaks. (This made my bar spacing quite odd, though.) It almost worked, but I could never get the tenors on page 7, system 2 to share a stave!
This has been driving me crazy, so if somebody could explain the logic of it to me or point me to the right tutorial, I’d be much obliged.
Dorico.zip (1 MB)
TBH, you’re making this a bit more complex than it needs to be. You’re adding Divisi changes, which creates two staves, and then Condensing them back down to one staff.
Why not just use two voices on the same staff, or chords, and then Divisi where you want two staves. No need for Condensing.
Also, you’re not actually saving any space by Condensing the T & B at the start (possibly because your Ideal Gap distance is very large).
Remember that Condensing is primarily for enabling different layouts to have different scorings. It’s somewhat useful for going down to a grand score reduction form SATB, – though arguably, you could just put the notes on the Sop and Bass staves. After all, you’re not giving individual parts to singers!
Tip: You can change the staff Label by making a Divisi change: split into 1 and 2, then delete 2, and change the label!
(Oh, and some of your hyphenation is a bit questionable: stran-gers, cri-sis, ci-ties – is more usual. Personally, I’m not a fan of splitting acknowledging as ‘knowl’, but that is a thing.)
If you have a condensing change midway through a system that calls for a change of disposition of the source players to a different number of staves, it won’t take effect until the next system, so that explains e.g. what’s going on at the top of page 8.
I’d be inclined to agree with Ben that you probably don’t need to use condensing in this project unless you also have need of producing a different kind of score layout than the one you show here.
Dear both, thanks for the prompt reply!
Yes, I see what you mean about condensing being unnecessary! I mainly write in galley mode, so I’m not really thinking about layout as I do it, just who’s singing what – led me down a bit of a blind alley I suppose.