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A score is your only means
of communication about your music. Whether it is being played by a group of
musicians or read by an examiner, make every effort to ensure that what
appears on the page is an accurate record of the ideas in your head.
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If you are writing for
instruments that you don’t know how to play, always check the technical
possibilities (especially the range) with someone who does or look up the
facts in a music dictionary.
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A score is a map of your
music. If it is hard to read, or incorrectly notated then it will be
virtually impossible to interpret your ideas.
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The ‘layout’ of a score is
similar to the reference co-ordinates of a map where the bar lines mark the
distance in time and the individual staves mark the type of sound. When
writing for a number of instruments, check how they should be ‘laid out’.
There is a traditional order and grouping of instruments/voices (from the top
to the bottom of the page) and bar lines are drawn through each section of the
orchestra, not through all the parts.
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A score must look right. The
visual spacing of bar lines should reflect the length of time the music
takes. The bar lengths will vary depending on how many notes there are, but
you must at least keep the lengths of each beat in one bar consistent.
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You must put in bar numbers,
and perhaps rehearsal letters. This is to enable the
reader/performer/examiner to find a particular point of reference in your
map. You can either mark every 5-10 bars, or at the beginning of each system.
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Once you have created the
overall map, if your piece is to be performed live, then the parts must be
generated. If you are doing this by hand then use it as an opportunity to
check and double check the music you have written for each instrument/voice.
If you are using a computer system do not expect the programme to
automatically make the adjustments and corrections that will need to be done.
You will need to develop ‘proof reading’ skills to avoid unnecessary
mistakes. Read through each part as if playing it yourself.
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When writing parts remember
that every single articulation, tempo and dynamic mark should appear in each
one. Each performer will have only one small section of the map and need to
work as part of the ensemble to find their way through your music.
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As well as the music, a
score should also contain other information: title page; name of composer/song
writer; date of completion; listings page of instrumentation, performance
notes and programme notes if possible.
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You can write a score in C,
without transposing the parts for horns, clarinets etc. If you do this be
sure to write clearly “Score in C” and that you use the correct sounding range
for all the instruments. Parts for players should normally be transposed,
even if the score is in C.
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Never hand in original copies
of a score or parts for any reason. If they are lost or damaged then no one
will be able to find your music again.