Searching for Pipe Organ template

• Nov 13, 2020 - 16:01

I am using MuseScore 3. I used to be able to transcribe or arrange pipe organ pieces (treble and bass lines plus pedal) but there is no longer a template for this. How can I find it? - Pauline


Comments

An organ template has never been provided. but the instrument does exist, so just pick the topmost option in the New Score Wizard, "Choose Instruments", and then pick "Organ"

Hi I'm BSG. I would have been "Bernie" but that name was taken. I am a classical organist (but not professional). "Church Organ" and "Pipe Organ" exist under "Keyboard" in the instruments menu, and differ only as to whether the pedal is put at the sub-octave (16') or not, but the only sound available on those two, which are identical, is a plenum sound with a 16' stop already in it. The really large problem with organs on MuseScore is that real organs have dozens (or for large ones, thousands, when combinations are taken into account) of "sounds", but only ONE (that plenum sound) is available as part of the default sound set. To figure out how to write for two manuals and pedal with different sounds takes a bit of work, and either one of the external "organ sound fonts" (e.g., Jeux) out there, or an external-to-MuseScore Virtual Pipe Organ system (VPO) like Hauptwerk (expensive) or GrandOrgue (shareware). There are other "workarounds", too. Please send me further questions if you want to know more. There is quite a bit of organ music (original and not) in my profile https://musescore.com/bsg , mostly rendered with Hauptwerk.

In reply to by [DELETED] 1831606

Hello Bernie; Thanks so much for reaching out to help me. This is a very frustrating problem. I am also a classical organist but started way too late in life (in 2010) to be as good as I'd like to be. I've played a few preludes, communion pieces and offertories in church, before Covid-19 made that impossible, but I am very fortunate to have a fairly recent model Johannus organ (a former church instrument with 2 manuals and full AGO pedal-board) in my living room. I don't write any original organ music, but I occasionally find out-of-print pieces I really like but which are in closed score and hard to read; so I transcribe them to separate the pedal line onto its own staff for easier reading. I haven't used MuseScore for this purpose for at least the past 10 months. I still use the free version, but load the updates whenever they occur. Today, however, when I started a new file and the instrument selection box appeared on the screen, none of the choices opened with a list that included "keyboard" or "organ". What I got is what you see on the attached screen-shot I did. So if "keyboard" is not available to me at all, is that because I'm using the free version? I know I've found Organ before, so I'm wondering what has changed. - Pauline

Attachment Size
Score wizard box.jpg 69.93 KB

In reply to by Pauline Finch

Hi, Pauline.

Shoichi and Mike320 have answered your issues about finding the correct controls. I hope you have found the box that offers "Choose instruments" -> Keyboard -> Organ. And the one and only version of the MuseScore program is, indeed, free, and always will be. If you are using MuseScore to "engrave" organ music, and do not care about how it sounds when played back by MuseScore (since you have usable real instrument), MuseScore is more than adequate, and you don't even need "organ". You can even use piano (with its braced staves) (or two different instruments and brace them), and add cello or some other single-staff bass instrument, and it will look like proper organ music does. There are many, many choices if MuseScore "playback" is not a problem.

In fact, choosing three separate non-organ instruments and bracing them like organ music (e.g., oboe, pan flute, cello) might even sound better (than MS "Organ") for chorale-preludes and other pieces for two manuals and pedal. But if what it sounds like on MS is not an issue, the world is your oyster (or öyster, as some say,..)...

In reply to by [DELETED] 1831606

For example, here is Bach's beloved Nun komm' der Heiden Heiland BWV 659, entered as oboe, viola, contrabass: https://musescore.com/bsg/scores/5302909 The performance you hear is Hauptwerk (at Doesburg), but if you select the three little sliders next to "Off" in the player bar, and from "sound sources" choose MuseScore Audio, you will get my original "scoring", which is very listenable and authentic-sounding.

In reply to by [DELETED] 1831606

Hi Bernie! I've been following this thread with interest. I'm attaching a couple files to show you to what extents I've gone to create a reasonable playback of an organ score using only MuseScore's native sound files (which is all I'm really interested in, anyway). One thing I have never understood with MS, is why the "Pipe Organ" intrument creates a pedal part with an 8va bass clef: it's understood that it usually means that, but I've never seen it notated that way. -- Bill

In reply to by wfazekas1

I looked at your scores. You are going through much, too much trouble. Create a score with an alto flute, a clarinet, and a bass clarinet, and mess around with the transpositions (in Staff properties) and clefs, and write "Für Orgel/Pour l'orgue" at the top until it looks like organ music. The registration changes can be done with "change instrument" texts.

Real organ music, of course, does not write 8va bassa or 8va sopra clefs, even when (at 4', say), that would be helpful. Of course, 16' pitch is standard. Note that "Pipe Organ" and "Organ" make opposite choices on the 8va bassa clef. Of course, the 8va bassa is not only nonstandard in published music, but downright wrong if the pedal is at 8' or 4'. For doing stuff with carefully pseudo-organ registered divisions, never use MS Organs -- just make staves, register them, and brace and clef them like organ music.

-BSG

In reply to by wfazekas1

I am; thanks. You can change any clefs and the transposition of any staff in any MuseScore score, Keep in mind if you do not use the "grand staff" of piano or organ, you can't do "cross-staff beaming", it will not "gladly bear the cross-staff" (cf BWV 56), but if you use the grand-staff, you can't register manuals separately.

In reply to by [DELETED] 1831606

Thanks Bernie (BSG) and all. The one major thing I had completely forgotten from the last time I used MuseScore was double-clicking to open the fuller lists of instruments. I did indeed find the pipe organ template and the default sound is no problem because I make transcriptions for private playing purposes only. It annoys me when the pedal part is all tangled up with the other voices, so if I can't find a piece I like that is scored with a separate pedal line (and it's not too long) then I make a score that I can visually navigate more easily. One thing that MuseScore could do to help anyone who has a memory lapse as I had, would be to insert a reminder instruction with the instrument selection "wizard box" to double-click. That one little extra would have saved me from needlessly bothering you good (and patient!) folks with my incompetence. I'm now well into one of my favourite Bach "Neumeister" Chorales that doesn't seem to come up on a search. Many thanks to everyone on this thread who gave helpful information. - Pauline

In reply to by Pauline Finch

Glad you're happy. MuseScore.com is not a library or a music store, but only the postings of people posting their favorite stuff, be it chorale preludes or video game music, repertoire or original, accurately or inaccurately. Since the Neumeister chorales are so "neu", not many are favorites. Of the set, I guess only the French-organist-like "Ach, Gott und Herr" remains in my mind at all, and their authenticity remains an open question for me.

In reply to by [DELETED] 1831606

I successfully transcribed Ach Gott und Herr (BWV 714), Das Alte Jahr Vergangen Ist (BWV 1091) and O Lamm Gottes Unschuldig (BWV 1095) and love the results. These are three particular favourites of mine among the Neumeister Chorales, despite their uncertain attribution. (I'm happy to share them if you wish but I imagine you have access to everything you're interested in; I'm mostly a beginner.) Thanks again, Pauline

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