Composing a concerto, need an answer on staff spacing
So I am composing a concerto. But I've got a problem. A lot of instruments don't show up. Even at Legal paper size(standard for symphonies and concertos to be printed in the US), it only shows instruments down to the third horn with default spacing:
Now granted, I did add a staff for every instrument(so like each single woodwind instrument has its own staff, same for brass, strings each have their staves in terms of groups, and the Piano has 2 staves).
Here are the instruments from top to bottom:
Piccolo
Flute
Flute
Alto Flute
Oboe
Oboe
English Horn
Bb clarinet
Bb clarinet
Bass clarinet
Bassoon
Bassoon
Contrabassoon
Piano
Horn in F
Horn in F
Horn in F
Horn in F
C Trumpet
C Trumpet
Bass Trumpet
Alto Trombone
Trombone
Bass Trombone
Tuba
Timpani
Violins
Violins
Violas
Violincellos
Contrabasses
I plan for the woodwinds to be the primary melody in quiet parts, the brass to be the primary melody in loud parts, the strings to be the harmony and countermelody, the piano to take all those roles, and of course the tympani for emphasis.
So I need an answer as soon as possible as to the staff spacing for my concerto. Also I want the instruments and tempo to both be on the title page. How do I do that for large works like this concerto where by default, they start on the second page leaving tons of whitespace?
Comments
The easy answer first. To add info to the title page select the first measure and insert a vertical frame. You can then add whatever information you want in the frame. There's practically no automatic formatting so all of that will have to be done with spaces and returns.
Fitting the instruments on a page may be just as easy. Go to Layout->Page Settings and reduce the scaling to fit all of the instruments on the page. There is a preview that will show the results of the different scaling values. BTW, enter the score in continuous view and it will be much easier. Wait until the concerto is entered to put it in page view and adjust articulation and dynamic positioning.
Maybe you've done it already, but you could also combine two similar instruments (e.g. the two flutes, two clarinets, two bassoons, the first two horns, the last two horns and the two trumpets) on one stave as voice 1 and 2. See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/voices That would also save you quite a bit of space.
EDIT: I see you did say you used a staff for every instrument. Except if you have a very specific reason for doing so, I would recommend against it for a score with this many instruments.
In reply to Maybe you've done it already… by Louis Cloete
Well here is what I have written of the concerto so far, just a few measures of a flute melody and 1 measure of bass woodwinds in a Bb major chord. I found that for my concerto, 5/4 time was more suitable to the beginning passage. I had 1 quarter followed by 3 eighths(not a triplet, just 3 normal eighths) and then the same thing again. I wanted it in 1 measure so I changed the time signature from 4/4 to 5/4.
And you notice that in the flute section, both the piccolo and the second flute start with 5 quarters and both the first flute and the alto flute start with those 2 groups of 1 quarter and 3 eighths. I don't think it will look good if I have both flutes on 1 staff with different voices. I based everything so far on that 1 Bb major chord. Even having the scales start at different notes was based on that chord.
Piano Concerto no. 1.mscz
In reply to Well here is what I have… by Caters
The first few measures with flutes on the same staff with different voices would not look too bad. The only problem will arise when you extract parts. This will be much easier in version 3 when it finally comes out.