Unison and divisi part writing

• May 18, 2019 - 16:43

I would like there to be an easy way to expand out a line's voices onto multiple lines in the part tab.
This is used in much orchestral music and would be really useful for keeping the conductor's score having a minimum amount of lines and the musician's part being as clear as possible.

An example of what I am talking about:
I wrote a short melody for 3 trumpets to show what I am talking about.

I would want the option to display this as:

(in conductor's full score)
and:

(in musician's part)

If there is already a way to do this then please let me know.
Thanks,

Zac

Edit:
I know you can already get this effect as I did it for the screen-shots, my feature request is for a tool that makes this easier.

Comments

mike320

• May 18, 2019 - 17:12

This is already possible in version 3. To create the conductors score, select the 3 instruments and use Tools->Implode. You can then delete the 2nd and 3rd staves. When you create parts, use the New button (Not New all). Change the name in the middle of the dialog as appropriate (Trombe for example). In the box in the bottom left select the trumpet part and then press the + next to it to add it 3 times. In the box at the bottom right, click the triangle to the left of the first trumpet listed and remove the checks from all but voice one. Select the triangle for the second trumpet listed and remove all checks but voice 2 and so on until you're done. When you click OK, you will get a trumpet part with 3 staves.

Edit: For the unison part: If you hide empty staves in the part and adjust the system breaks you can make it look that way.

Zac-Stewart

• May 18, 2019 - 17:18

Thanks for your comment! I am aware it is already possible to do this as to get the screen-shots I did just as you said. However my feature request is for an easier (and cleaner) way to do this.
Thanks anyway.

mike320

• May 18, 2019 - 17:38

I agree there should be an easier way to get the unison line, or even split the unison into 3 separate parts since most music is not handed out to musicians with 3 parts printed on them.

I've seen discussion concerning this and I even thought there was a suggestion in the issue tracker, but I can't find it at the moment.

Zac-Stewart

• May 18, 2019 - 17:44

I think the easiest way for it to work would be as follows:
1. create a unison line with different parts in different voices
2. select the region you want to divide
3. click a button in like tools > divide
4. give the option for this to be part specific
The divided region would automatically go onto it's own line(s) so as not to mess up the lines with just unison.

mike320

• May 18, 2019 - 18:33

The idea I saw had all of the parts on one staff. When some or all of the parts played unison the text (a 2 was proposed, which is common in symphonic music) would be inserted. There would be options to tell which voices were in unison and you could change the text as with any other text item (like D.S. al fine).

This would allow you to make parts 2 & 3 play in unison, enter the text that says 2&3 unison and set the voices to 2 & 3 so when the parts are extracted both parts voices 2 & 3 would have this included.