Score production

The following information should help you to provide scores and parts which accurately reflect your intentions. The better the materials, the more quickly and easily the music will be brought to life by the orchestra.

Proof-read:
1. The information provided by your score and parts must be accurate and look as beautiful as possible. Mistakes or poor layout make it more difficult for your music to be assimilated by performers and lead to unproductive use of valuable rehearsal time.
2. Before creating parts, proof-read the score carefully because any subsequent changes will mean altering the parts as well. If a change affects many parts it is easy to overlook some.
3. Check your work carefully and try to objectively consider if your ideas will be clear to someone seeing them and performing them for the first time. There is a delicate balance to be maintained between over-marking (i.e. distracting attention by adding something obvious) and under-marking (which either leads to time-wasting questions or the musicians doing whatever pleases them rather than you).
4. When you create orchestra parts they should match the score in every detail. Be sure to check that your orchestra parts include correctly numbered rests where necessary. Writing different things in parts or wrong numbers of bar rests results in confusion and wastes rehearsal time.
5. Are the dynamics or other performance directions clear and consistent in all parts? Is everything – accidentals, rhythms etc. - notated correctly? To be able to assimilate music quickly, professional musicians develop a sort of “radar” which guides their performance. This is generally extremely beneficial but means that an easy rhythm notated without regard for conventions, for example, or a note which would be harmonically clear as F# written as Gb, may well mislead players and cause mistakes in performance.
6. Make sure transpositions are clear. If there are transposing instruments then the score is always assumed to be a transposing score unless “Score in C” is clearly written on it.
7. If possible get someone else to proof-read your work. It is extremely easy to miss obvious mistakes in your own work.
Labelling:
1. Every page of the score and each part should include the composer’s name and / or the title of the piece plus the description of the part (e.g. Violin I) and the page number. This avoids confusion at the orchestral session when players have parts for many different pieces, often unbound, on their stands.
2. Scores and parts must include either bar numbers and / or rehearsal marks (for maximum efficiency in rehearsal, both is best). In order that there are easy reference points in case of questions. Bar numbers should be shown at the top left of each system.
Production:
1. You need to have a part for every instrument listed in the score. Provided that voice leading is clear and that the music can be easily read it is possible to have shared parts (e.g. for Oboes I & II or Cello + Bass) but you need a separate copy for each player or string desk. For the strings the parts need to be as follows:
  3 x Violin I, 3 x Violin II, 2 x Viola, 2 x Cello, 1 x Bass (or 3 x Vc+B).
2. Don’t forget you need at least four copies of your score. One for the conductor to use, one for you and at least two for your teachers / colleagues to look at!
3. Scores should be produced using both sides of the paper. If they are produced one-sided then they can be bound / stuck with the blank sides back-to-back.
4. the pages of scores and parts should be stuck together if they cannot be bound. Tying loosely with string is fine and means that pages cannot become muddled between rehearsal and performance.
5. After you produce your orchestra parts be sure to check carefully:
  1. That page turns are in suitable places.
  2. That any rests have been correctly calculated and that they display correctly.
  3. That bar and rehearsal numbers display correctly.
  4. That any transpositions are correctly labelled and produce the correct notes.
  5. That all dynamics, tempo and other markings have transferred to the parts.
  6. That any redundant brackets or braces have been removed.
Backup:
1. Keep a separate hard copy of original scores and all parts and, if you produce materials using a computer, ensure that you keep backups of all files. Never hand-in or part with your original copies!

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Score production

Proof-read:

Labelling:

Production:

Backup: