David, think practically when you are assembling your score order. Different publishers do different things, and there is no standard. Again, think practically!! To answer your questions:
1. Place instrument lines in "families". *It does not matter if bassoons are a bass voice*; NEVER put bassoons at the very bottom of the woodwinds. The order should be oboes, English horn, bassoons. That would make just as much sense as putting contrabassoon underneath the double bass line (eye roll!). 2. NEVER put horns above the trumpets. Yes, the horns mingle with the woodwinds very often, and the timbre of the horn is closer to a woodwind sound, HOWEVER, the horn IS the alto member of the brass family, so put them underneath the trumpets. Some publishers do this, and it's...well, stupid. In that same vein, NEVER score them 1-3-2-4; that's ridiculous. Score them 1-2-3-4, just like everything else. I've asked horn professors and horn players why so many pieces of music are scored 1-3-2-4, and there is never a practical answer except "tradition". You'd never see a second trumpet scored / voiced above a first trumpet, or a second trombone scored / voiced above a first trombone, so don't do 1-3-2-4 with horns. 3. Double bass below tuba, yes. 4. In your wind ensemble or concert band scoring, the cornet vs. trumpet saga is really a null-and-void point. In most wind ensembles and concert bands, cornets are barely ever used anymore. The older literature that has three cornet parts and two trumpet parts are ALL played on trumpets. All of Alfred Reed's literature is written that way. Realistically, it doesn't matter who you pass out the parts to, because again, they'll all be played on trumpets. 5. Condensed scores are useless, and the suck. Enough said. In that regard, don't hide any staves that aren't "active" on the page. The conductor wants to see consistency in the layout on each page. If the timpani doesn't play for 79 bars, fine, *leave the staff*. Publishers used to eliminate staves on pages so as to save ink, space, and paper - BUT, they forget about consistency and practicality, which is exactly why I don't go through publishers. Hope all of this helps. Patrick J. M. Sheehan P. S. Music 1-815-973-2317 (m) [email protected] -----Original Message----- From: David Froom [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, August 06, 2018 12:01 PM To: <[email protected]> Subject: [Finale] Band/wind ensemble questions Hi all, I'm really hoping to enlist someone who regularly writes for band to give me some advice. I'm writing this for a top notch, professional group. Some questions: For score order, there seem to be some variations from orchestral standard. But different sources say different things. Here are my questions: 1) Some say bassoons go between Ob/Eng Horn and Clarinets. Others say they go below clarinets. Which is more standard these days for professional bands? 2) Some say the trumpets above the horns, others say this is changing these days to standard orchestral (horns above trumpets because they often mingle with the saxophones). Which is more standard these days for professional bands? 3) Double bass, I'm told, goes below the tuba, but above piano - then timp plus percussion on the bottom. Is this standard these days for professional bands? My orchestral instincts want it at the very bottom. The group I'm writing for could be full band or wind ensemble (my choice), so as many as Eb clarinet, 12 Bb clarinets (4 to each of three parts), 2-3 low clarinets (bass, contra, alto), 6 cornets (2 to each of three parts) plus 2 trumpets - though any of the cornet players could play trumpet, picc trumpet, or flugelhorn. Then 2 euphoniums, 3 tubas. I'm leaning towards asking for one to a part (clarinets as Eb, 2 Bb, alto cl, bass cl); 3-6 trumpets, 1 euphonium, 1 tuba. Can anyone advise as to why I should go with all the doubled parts? Thinking as someone coming from the orchestra world, all those extra clarinets, trumpets, euphoniums/tubas seem to be a strange and troublesome counterbalance to the rest of the group (pic, 3 fl, 2 ob, eh, 2 bn, cbn, sax quartet, 4 horns, 3 trb, btrb). And does band vs wind ensemble change any of the score order? Final question: According to Gould in "Behind Bars," people do NOT remove empty staves! She grants that timp/percussion can be removed from the page if they aren't playing, but everyone else stays, doesn't have empty staves removed from any of the pages. Is this really true!!!??? Thanks very much in advance! David Froom --- This email has been checked for viruses by AVG. https://www.avg.com _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] https://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale To unsubscribe from finale send a message to: [email protected]
