Re: Vocal scores with extra staves

[David Wright]

On Tue 28 Feb 2017 at 18:32:22 (+1100), Andrew Bromage wrote:
> On 28/2/17 3:23 pm, David Wright wrote:
> >Sorry. I was labouring under the misapprehension that you _wanted_
> >staves starting mid-page (as in your OP, but placed correctly between
> >the upper voices and the piano), and that Klaus was advocating
> >frenching the score instead.
> Not really.

Yes. Really. (That's a statement of fact about my mind.)

> What I want is to bring a staff into existence for a small
> amount of time, and that case is solved, but I was also interested
> in the general case.

Well, I don't have a clue whether that staff has to be brought into
existence anywhere, or just at the beginning of a line; only that you
want the number of staves to change from time to time. But I'm glad
whatever you wanted is solved, whichever method you adopted.
(I thought the big guns here might have commented on your syntax
extension and where that syllable actually goes. I only brought a
pea-shooter to bear on it.)

> The general case is that you have a complex score with many varying
> combinations of parts in unison on occasions, and you need to
> reduce it down to a size such that the singers and the rehearsal
> pianist have a fighting chance without turning a page every two seconds.
> 
> Thankfully not something I have to do...

Oh, I thought that's what you _did_ have to scale it up to, and
that a G&S Finale was an example of your type of score.

I can see that reducing the number of pages helps, but there's also
consideration for the people who have to perform from this type of
score (usually it's singers). How frequently are they going to have
to switch between staves (and clefs)?

Just as an example, the opening page of the Finale could have been
set on two staves, but it's not worth the hassle as it's going to
have to break into four at the third system anyway, because of the
rhythmic and lyric differences. It's compromise all along.

Cheers,
David.