Creating an opera score

• Jan 11, 2025 - 19:31

In creating and opera piano/vocal score you may have just the piano intro for a few pages, and then have a solo passage with piano, and then have half a page with two vocal parts leading to a trio of voices all with piano accompaniment with four bars of just piano in the bass. The formatting, as far as I can figure out, does not allow this as a continuous document. I realize you can format hiding unused lines but this does not solve the problem of switching from one solo vocal staff to two or more vocal staves without causing a lot of confusion. Is there a solution to this? Many thanks for any help.


Comments

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

Thanks for the reply but this does not answer my question. On page one I want just the piano intro, on page two I want to add the vocal part mid way down the page to continue until page four where a new vocal line will be added with only piano accompaniment in the bass, etc. I don't see a way to do this without having all the staves visible from the beginning.

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

I think by "continuous document," @JP simply meant "one score," not "continuous view."

Nevertheless, there should be no problems--create the score file with as many parts are you will need, max--when not in use, they should remain hidden (meaning, just not appear). (You can adjust this in the staff/part properties--"hide when empty: always," " . . .never," etc.) If, for instance at the start of a trio section, you want more clarity, consider using a section break--that way, all parts will appear with full instrument/part names, not the short forms.

In reply to by Jan Powell

You wrote:
> On page one I want just the piano intro... <
and:
> I don't see a way to do this without having all the staves visible from the beginning. <

Normally the first system of page 1 shows all staves visible from the beginning, even if empty.
So...
Go to Format > Style and put a check in the box 'Hide empty staves within systems'. After that gets checked the box that reads 'Don't hide empty staves in first system' can be unchecked to hide empty staves in the first system - so then just the piano intro. is visible.

N.B.: Use hide empty staves only after you enter all notation, otherwise you won't see the (empty) staves into which you need to place notes.

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