Yes, I was thinking mainly of wind parts. I've seen so many horrendous combined parts that I cringe when I see them. I understand that a string section is managed differently, and when there are divisi parts in cello, e.g., that is almost always "vertical" i.e. same rhythms, harmonized notes. That's not so objectionable on a combined part -- as long as the intervals are separate enough so that there is absolutely no difficulty in reading accidentals.

In other cases, I think I'd be inclined to use Smart Explosion on the difficult passage to break that into two separate staves on the same cello part -- only using two staves for the difficult-to-read passages.

I guess my point is that the musicians have enough to worry about without the copyist doing a cop-out. IMHO, music should be as easy to sight-read as possible.

Cheers,
Craig




At 05:21 PM 8/13/2003 -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
Craig wrote:
So far so good. Right now I'm working on an orchestration for full symphony orchestra + jazz combo + several other instruments not normally in an orchestral score. I set this up as usual, with each instrument having its own staff. I did that so I could easily do an extraction where each player gets his or her own music without any confusing divisi bits. As a musician, I absolutely abhor those combined parts, and I vow never to put any other musicians through that unless the divisi is a very small percentage of the part.

As an orchestral string player, I would have to disagree rather strongly. Do you really mean that if, at one point, the violas divide in 3, you would provide parts for Viola 1, Viola 2 and Viola 3? If I were the section leader I would take one look and tell the conductor that your piece is more trouble than it's worth. We know how to handle divisi, and standard engraving practice is just fine.


I wrote a band piece in which the euphoniums divide a2, a3, and a4. All the divisi parts appear on the extracted page, each on a separate line, and there is no ambiguity or potential for confusion.

If you're just talking about orchestral wind parts, then I agree with you in MOST cases, but possibly not all.

If you're talking about percussion parts, I don't agree at all. The parts have to be such that the section leader can distribute them no matter what the size of the section is.

John


-- John & Susie Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale


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