Sibelius question
  • Randolph Nichols
    Posts: 398
    Despite having long relied on Sibelius for conventional voice and keyboard scoring, occasionally I encounter a hurdle my handbook doesn’t seem to have considered (though perhaps I’m not asking it the right questions).

    The problem is this: when wanting to employ more than four voices in a keyboard or vocal score, I see no way to go about it. It’s obvious when scoring for orchestra, but what about an organ piece with five individual lines written on only two staves?

    If the answer is simple, be gentle. You’re dealing with a guy still daunted by the flip phone.
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,799
    It's easy to create as many staves as there are voices, yes? You seem to be asking how to fit three voices onto one staff, if I understand the question. Sibelius can make 4 rhythmically independent voices using the bottom keys of the number pad (if this part is confusing better try Sibelius help center); the challenge is making the result pretty. You might find Bach's 2-stave layout of the 6-part Ricercare instructive.
  • Randolph Nichols
    Posts: 398
    Richard,

    Thanks for responding. Yes, I was trying to get three voices onto one staff using either a piano or SATB reduction score. Though my manual doesn't say how to do it, I did figure it out - more or less by accident. You have to click the entry more than once.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,825
    It is easy to get four independent voices on one staff. It is very tricky to make it look nice (readable). Here is a section of my version of Bach's Ricercare A6 for organ. It took a few hours to get it near looking playable and longer to play it. (I might have accidentally deleted a few notes in the middle measures where rests show up... but you get the idea.
    ricercareExample.png
    1650 x 310 - 87K
    Thanked by 1Randolph Nichols
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,799
    A laudable exercise which I haven't yet tried myself, though the frustrations are probably similar to trying to make an organ-friendly Christ rising again. Wouldn't bar 55 (2nd in example) look more elegant with a dotted half in alto and contrasting stem directions for the soprani (I see the holograph linked above has upward stems for both)?

    It's true though that there's something kind of reassuring about the cross-sections represented by tied notes: it takes a special kind of concentration to follow the 6 voices in short score, such that I find the open score actually easier, clefs and all, which is not at all the case for the 4-part Fiori musicali. When I really want to torture myself I try working out the transposing instruments in Webern's orchestration.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,825
    Richard:

    Yes, tied notes make it easier to sight read. If you are memorizing, whole nother project. This is basically a midi dump into sib and then assigning voices to a number. I usually try to put notes in the staff per hand assignment, which means the middle voices cross over here and there.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,825
    I checked the voicing again. Bach dropped the voices for a few measures in the passage I put up above, so I think the example is complete.
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,483
    Francis: This looks great. Would you be willing to post this for other organ geeks?
  • francis
    Posts: 10,825
    ghmus

    give me till after holy week
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