When extracting parts, assign cues sparingly to a pro or semi-pro level work. Best cues are after: a. long stretches of over 30 bars b. extended passages of metric complexity, and/or changes of meter and tempo c. a very long cadenza. It’s not necessary to pepper your score with cues after every tacet. Pro orchestra…
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When finalizing an extended orchestral project, proof each instrumental section for careless errors. With Sibelius, you can do this very easily with Focus on Staves, and isolate your screen view to a subset of the available instruments. I’m always on the lookout for missing slurs and dynamics, incomplete technique directions (forgetting to end a passage…
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Use rehearsal marks foremost in places where the conductor will need to fix things – not necessarily always at the beginnings of sections. My rule of thumb is trouble spots/intricate textures first; changes of tempo, key, and meter second; and beginnings of sections last (these criteria often overlap, with two or even all three satisfied…
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Two last warnings about score layouts, traps into which composers may easily fall. In the top example, Percussion 1 is changing from a triangle to a snare. Sibelius will blithely omit the blank staves and play back the correct instruments – but the conductor’s eye may glance across the page and think that the triangle…
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Following on from yesterday’s advice about leaving in blank staves leading up to, or between instruments being used. Here is the other side of that equation – always reduce systems where instruments are dormant for long stretches. Shedding the blank staves helps the conductor’s eye to define the relationships between instruments and groups. It’s a…
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Sometimes, when a page of score can’t be reduced into divided systems, it’s good to leave some blank staves alerting the conductor to instruments about to make an entrance. Also, leave blank staves on a page if the instruments are going in and out of being used every 2 to 3 pages. This way, the…
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Use extreme caution when scoring octave melodies for clarinets. Be aware that the overtones reinforce each other with great potency. If you need an octave melody in winds but want to avoid such a pungent sound, try them with the clarinet as the top instrument over a bassoon or english horn, or the old Mozart…
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Always make sure that that your string players have plenty of time to put on and take off their mutes. Yes, this is a standard caution of orchestration manuals, but there’s more to it: you also have to provide some cover for the minuscule bustle as the players go about the process. Most players have…
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