Changes to part systems: engraving standards and locking parts
Hi, two feature request, one tiny, one big.
The first is to update an engraving standard. In parts it is standard to have the part name at the top of each page. This is as to better organize and maintain the parts once printed and doesn't make it a hassle to separate parts when different printed parts get inevitably mixed together. In musescore this is relatively easily done by putting $:partName: in the header. It would however be much easier if this was done automatically when creating the part, similar to how the page numbers are notated automatically. I could see few situations where you would not want the instrument name on top. For reference; Behind Bars: The Definitive Guide to Music Notation lists this as an engraving standard.
Second. Currently it is quite the hassle to create multiple parts from the same stave while keeping just the one stave on the conductor's score.. I have seen others have this problem as well. Multiple ways this could happen:
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On the conductor's score you have one part with x voices for which you want x different parts.
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You want to create multiple parts for an ambiguous instrumentation, such as for a clarinet part one for an A clarinet, another for a Bb clarinet.
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You want to have an alternate part, such as both an advanced and an intermediate version of the same part, or just a different version of the part altogether.
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You want to add information that wouldn't really interest the conductor but are important for the part (like fingering or cues)
Currently this is possible to do, but not without much annoying hassle, or even creating entirely new scores. It would be very useful if you could lock/split the part from the main score. Like a simple checkbox next to each part that controlled whether edits in the part changed and are linked to the main score, would already be a huge time saver.
Thanks for coming to my ted talk
Comments
You wrote: "Behind Bars: The Definitive Guide to Music Notation lists this as an engraving standard.". Actually Gould says it is "good policy" to do this, rather than a "standard".
I found from a quick survey of my library (a not particularly representative sample) that in about 75% of my piano/clarinet pieces, the parts are not labelled in the running headers - even in the Wiener Urtext editions of the Brahms sonatas which come with the alternative viola parts (of course the alto/treble clef makes it fairly obvious which part you are looing at). It seems less common in newer publications. It is much more common in orchestral parts to see part labelling in the headers. However, in about 50% of the parts I currently have to hand the label also includes the work title. Genres other than those I looked at may have different practices. Perhaps a wider range of views should be sought before deciding what the default should be.
You can easily define you own "house style" for score and parts separately. For instance, to use a particular style for all generated parts, set up one the way you like, then Format / Save Style. Then in Edit / Preferences / Score, you can set the resulting MSS file as your default for parts. note you could also make this all part of a template.
Regarding creating multiple parts from a single staff, you don't say what specifically about the current process you'd like to see streamlined. Biggest drawback I know is that you need to use multiple voices consistently, even if the parts are in unison, but it's also pretty simple to make the second voice invisible if desired. I'm not aware of cases that would require a separate staff, not for just basic things like having two flutes share a staff. Sounds like you have some other use cases in mind, but it still isn't clear what can't be achieved by simply making things invisible. For a different version of the part altogether, a separate part makes sense and is easily possible. If you attach an actual real-world score maybe we can understand better what you are having trouble with, and either suggest simpler solutions, or get a starting point on designing improvements.
In reply to You can easily define you… by Marc Sabatella
Great didn't know that function.
I'm sorry if I wasn't clear. Basically what I am looking for is a way to unlink the part from the main score amd the various things that make such a thing useful. If I want to have separate parts for each voices(not necessarily just that, but it is what bugged me enough to write this). If I want to add cues. If I wanted to add bowing symbols in string parts, but not in the main score. If i want to have different parts for different transposing instruments. It is of course not an impossible thing to do but it takes extra time that I think is unnecessary with the introduction of a single button, and that time adds up when editing large orchestral parts. What i was referring to with staves is the process I do this with:
Go to the instrument menu find and add the instruments that I want to have different parts for.
Ctrl+shift+end on the staff I want two versions of and copy it
Press home and find and paste on the new staff, then repeat this process for every other staff.
Create a new part for that ghost instrument
Go back to the instrument menu and check the visible box of the ghost instrument
This is quite counter intuitive way, as well as slow but it is actually the "easiest" and fastest way I have found to do that also gives me the exact control I want over the part. Hence the need for a creation of a new stave.
Another alternative, is as you say to have different voices but that only solves one of the issues, takes more time to input and clutters up the main score which takes more time to clean. If I were to create different voices for different instruments inside the stave the score would in some cases be more cluttered up and it would take much longer to finish cleaning up the clutter than is worth. It is of course not a big deal when you have two flute parts where one flute plays an octave lower than the other, but this pretty quickly runs into problems especially in brass where it is not uncommon to have 3 instruments in the same stave. I also now have to put in extra time in placing articulations and making certain things like articulations invisible in the conductors score.
Here is an example measure from Schoenberg's Survivor from Warsaw:
It is the trombone part for three trombones. This is what it comes out as in musescore as three voices:
Cleaning up such clutter would take longer than doing the first process.
I want three separate trombone parts, one for each of the trombones it takes quite the unnecessary amount of time to do so If I want to keep a legible main score. Though splitting voices is only part of the problem as said above.
Another score example. From Brahms' 4th symphony. What I would want is a violin part like this with the articulations in pencil:
but a main score like this that does not have those articulations in pencil:
Another example would be if I want to have multiple different transpositions of a piano part for vocal music. Or multiple different transpositions for transposing instruments
This would all be solved, when I can create the new part and then tick off a box, like I can similarly with the different voices, that disconnects the link between the main score and the part, and then edit the part as i wish without affecting the main score nor the other parts. All it would do is create a copy of the part as it is in the main score, as soon as i created it, and then I can change the part to whatever I want, without it changing the main score, hence locking the part and unlinking it from the main score. It is of course useful to have the parts connected, but it is also sometimes useful to have them not connect. It would in any case be a huge time saver and save a lot of tedious work. It is quick and intutitive. I don't have to bother going back to the main score and making stuff invisible, or alternately dealing with voices.
In reply to Great didn't know that… by dubbelgamer
For bowing symbols and the like, no need to bother with separate parts - just make them invisible in the score, trivially easy to do for the whole score at once if you (right-click, Select / All Similar Elements) or by region (eg, click one, Shift+click another to select all in that range.
For the multiple transposition, just add that as an extra staff and make it invisible in the score (Edit / Isntruments).
So those problems are solved already. But cues are another matter. You can make them invisible in the score but it requires a bit more work, and messes up the hiding of empty staves. So that's definitely something we want to improve. Still ,we'd rather solve that problem directly than force people to resort to the much worse alternative of unlinked parts. That's going to be thousand times more work in the long run, constantly having to sync every last change manually. But if you want that, you can indeed save the part separately.
And as I mentioned previously, indeed, the main limitation with combining parts onto a single staff currently is the need for multiple voices. That's a known area for improvement indeed. but still, the implode / explode tools make pretty quick work of keeping a combined staff and separate staves in sync, have you explored those?