multiple horns on staff

Hi there,

If I have two staves of horns with two horns each, what is the best way to put this into Finale? I have been using layers. However, some of the articulations are hard to read and slurs run into dynamics etc. Also, should I hide rests in second layer when they are shared by the first layer? I really want to keep the two staves of horns.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Without being 100% sure, you should further divide the horns, if you don't have clarity with the 2 staves.

Both rests should be there, even when shared.

Hope this helps.

Generally, two layers are a good idea. But in the score you can also write the notes as "chords", i.e. on a single stem, which of course only works if both horns have the same rhythm. In traditional scores it's usually a mixture between those two forms. Single staff for sections with shared rhythms, multiple layers when the rhythms differ. Rests are in such cases usually not written for both instruments if they have exactly the same rests. If in a bar the two instruments have different rhythms you should definitely write out the rests for both instruments though. If the parts are even more complex, I'd also divide them into separate staves. It's always preferable to have many staves than colliding notational elements which make the whole score unreadable. (Personally I use separate staves for every single instrument, except tutti string parts, in almost all my scores.)

However note that this applies to the score, not the individual parts. In the parts you should, unless your music is extremely simple (but even then rather not), always have one staff for every instrument.

Take this example from Brahms' third symphony:

The clarinets and bassoons start out with notation on a single stem, turning into two-layer-notation, and then uniting on a single staff again in the clarinets. The horns are on seperate stems until the last note, which has a single stem. You'll notice that the rests in the first horn measure are written out for both instruments, since they set in at different times, but in the last measure there's just one rest per staff, even in the bassoons who still have seperate stems on the notes in this measure, since all instruments share the same rhythm.

You see that you can be rather free in this respect. Find ways to write it so it's clean and easy to read.

Personally, I always recommend a separate stave for each part, and players should only be given their part, never a combined part.