Piano reduction

• Feb 21, 2018 - 15:25

Hello, I'm trying to put in a piano reduction for an SSAATTBB piece, and I know it's usually just copy and paste on different voices, but it appears that I can't get 4 parts on one like just copied and pasted, if you could help me out that would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks you


Comments

In order to give good advice, it would help if you attach the score itself. The best approach depends a lot on the content of the score. That said, in principle, you should always be able to do a very literal piano reduction of an SSAATTBB score by putting SSAA into voices 1-4 of the top staff, TTBB into voices 1-4 of the bottom. The result is likely to be unplayable and will probably require a lot of human ingenuity to make into something more reasonable, but that at least is a good start. To do this, simply move each individual staff into the proper voice using Edit / Voices. then combine them with copy & paste. Copy the voice 1 part onto voice 2, then that combination onto the voice 3, etc.

In reply to by witwickj

OK, I see now that you are starting with four staves, I was assuming eight. But the idea remains the same: you need to get SSAA into voices 1-4 on one staff, TTBB into voices 1-4 on another staff.

Right now, SS is voices 1-2, so that much is fine. Now you need to get AA from voices 1-2 where they are now into voices 3-4 where they need to be. So, Edit / Voices / Exchange Voice 1-3, then again with 2-4. Now you can copy the SS staff onto the AA staff and you'll have all four voices on a single staff. Do the same for TTBB, eliminate the now-unneeded SS and TT staves, and then you can start worrying about how to make this actually readable / playable. Or you can try to do that work first, your choice. But anyhow, that's how to do the combining.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

When reducing scores for choral accompaniment or other purposes, I have found that which direction voices are copied is important: Measures with lower number voices must be copied to measures with the higher numbered voices.
For example, measures with voice 1 must be copied to the measures containing voice 2.
If you try to copy voice 2 measures into voice 1 measures, the voice 1 notes are replaced and only measure 2 notes appear.

In reply to by tomfeledy

Voice 1 is special in that it always needs to be present and complete. This leads to a number of ways in which it needs to be handled differently. If you describe the exact sequence of steps you are trying, I can try to explain why it works the way it does.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Marc,
It is the reverse of what you stated:
1) In the upper stave, ensure the notes are in Voice 1
2) In the lower stave, Exchange Voices 1-2, so the notes are now in Voice 2. A Voice 1 whole note rest appears in the measure(s).
3) Copy the lower stave measures into the upper stave
4) Now in the upper stave, you will see only the Voice 2 notes. The Voice 1 notes are no longer there.
This does not happen if you use the Selection Filter to copy and paste just the Voice 2 notes.
Are the Voice 1 Whole note rests overwriting the Voice 1 notes they are being copied onto?
-Tom

In reply to by tomfeledy

Exactly. The bottom staff now has two voices - 1 & 2. Voice 1 just happens to contain a rest. When copying the lower staff, you are actually copying both voices, and the rest in voice 1 overwrites the destination. The selection filter allows you to exclude the rest in voice 1 from the selection, so it no longer overwrites the destination. Copying the other direction is no problem because the upper staff doesn't contain anything at all in voice 2 - no rest, nothing. So there is nothing to overwrite the destination. Enter a rest into voice 2 on that top staff before the copy and you'll see it is exactly the same as the reverse case - the rest overwrites the destination unless excluded via the filter.

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