How would you combine parts? Looking for your suggestions - best practices.

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Jerry Lawson Posted May 04, 2021 01:23

I have completed a work for concert band that includes 2 movements. Each movement is independent with a pause between them, but I want them to be printed with a break in between if possible - so that they would look like this:

Title

- 1 -

Music from 1st movement.

- 2 -

Music from the second movement,

I have created each movement as a separate score, with like instrumentation, so merging files at the score level should not be an issue.

I can think of a couple of solutions....

1. merge the two scores together, and then create the individual parts. I have done this in the past, and the parts came out as one continuous part - nice, as there was a segue between the pieces being merged in that case. I want the visual break; measure numbers are used as rehearsal marks, so need to keep them clearly defined to avoid confusing.

2. Take each movement and create the individual parts from each, and then take the corresponding parts (ie - 1st flute from each), and merge them together. Use the spacing controls available in the parts to add extra space between the two movements, and to get the parts to visibly look correct.

3. Use an outside PDF editor to merge the individual files after creating the them as in the beginning of #2 above, This requires some extra software (not really a big deal, but I am not familiar with good PDF tools), and sound like a lot of manual futzing with each part to know how many scores can be put on a page, etc.

4. The old stand by - cut and paste with real scissors. This really isn't an option, as printing the ages before performance will most likely be out of my control. I'd rather give a file to the secretary and say print this, intead of here are a bunch of pasted together pages, be careful, and take them to a copy center to get them duplicated.

There is a lot of collective wisdom on this site, so if I may, I'd like to here what you might suggest, or what your experiences have been, if you have done something similar.

Thanks on advance for your time

Jerry

4 comments

Date Votes

PETER THOMSEN Posted May 04, 2021 05:10

I would do the separation as a single measure in a one-measure-system.

In that one-measure-system, use a custom staff style to de-select the items that should not display, such as Clef, Key Signature, Time Signature, Staff-lines, &c.

Then, add the movement title as an expression.

This can be done in both the score and the parts.

Jerry Lawson Posted May 05, 2021 18:16

Peter -

That's an interesting idea, one that I had not considered.

One question - to do this, would you add the measure to the first movement, merge the two movements together, and then define the one measure system as you described? Then create the parts? I normally futz with all the parts to insure that readability is the best it can be with page breaks in good spots, etc.

Thanks for your suggestion.

Jerry

PETER THOMSEN Posted May 05, 2021 19:54

… One question - to do this, would you add the measure to the first movement, merge the two movements together, and then define the one measure system as you described? …

It does not matter, at what step you add the extra measure.

You can

1) add the extra measure to the end of the first movement, then merge the movements,

2) insert the extra measure before the beginning of the second movement, then merge the movements,

3) merge the movements, then insert the extra measure between the movements.

If method 1) feels best for your workflow, then do so.

By The Way:

Pay attention to the measure numbers.

The extra measure should not have a measure number.

Allan Hunter Posted April 30, 2023 04:11

I was struggling with this to have the end of my first movement flow seamlessly into the second movement. I read in an old Community post about using an Expression called segue, for which I had looked earlier with no success. I looked all over and it dawned on me: create you own.

In the Expression Tool, there is a button on the bottom of the dialog box labeled "Create Dynamic..." Click on that button and Expression Designer dialogue box opens up. Here put the description and how you want your text to look in you score. I put "Attacca", but you could put "Segue" (or anything else). Click 'OK' when done. Click 'Assign' if you only want the one section of your music to have this designation. Click the down arrow/chevron to reveal four choices: Assign to Current Staff, Assign to All Staves, Assign to Staves... (opens a dialog box to select any available staves in your pieces) and something called '(New Assignment List)' that did nothing, so you'll have to investigate that on your own.

Once you assign the new expression, it appears in all of the assigned staves and individual parts.

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