Multiple instruments on same staff?

• Oct 8, 2017 - 19:15

Is it possible to have multiple instruments on one staff? In Handel's Almira, which I'm trying to transcribe, there are two staves with violin and oboe. Is there an easy way to do the same in MuseScore? I want it to actually sound like violin and oboe together.
handel almira.PNG


Comments

When I transcribe a piece like this I split the violin and oboe into separate lines. I'm actually working on a Handel piece as I type and I did just that.

BTW: if you want it to eventually be on OpenScore you need to use separate staves.

And FWIW, just because one particular historic edition of a piece happened to represent this way doesn't really mean it is appropriate to reproduce it that way today.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

I'd say it depends. If the oboes play along with the fiddles through the whole piece (I assume it is an aria) why not represent it this way?
The good news of course is that with Musescore you can use copy/paste to "typeset" the complete oboe staves using a small number of keystrokes. The engraver who had to do the job in the old days would have had to engrave every note, rest, slur etc. twice. No wonder he chose the shortcut.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

I know this thread is already a few days dormant, so I don't want to upset the apple-cart, but I'd just like to point out that condensed score is still very much the norm in stage musicals. It is very common to have brass, winds and strings (not to mention non-pitched percussion) notated on a single grand staff. I've seldom seen an orchestral reduction split over more than four staves. I have to admit that it can be a pain to interpret if the reduction is not well done, but it appears to be the current convention nonetheless.

I imagine if a fully-notated score on Musescore were condensed, it should be in some way possible to keep the voices (or the MIDI channel settings) intact. I suppose a simpler solution would be to hide the open score and only display the reduction.

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.