Score Layout

Hey all,

I was just wondering if due to space restrictions it is permissable to write parts such as flute, piccolo, bass flute and oboe/english horn on the same staff. Normally I would split the parts up but there is not enough room on my score paper to do this.

you may write similar intruments on single staves, ie: 2 flutes on one staff, 2 oboes, etc..

you may NOT write different instruments on the same staff, unless they are being played by the same performer.

So no putting a piccolo on the same staff as a flute if the two are played by different people.

And it is, needless to say, completely forbidden from placing instruments from different families on the same staff, ie: a flute and an oboe.

if your score is taking up too much room, then resize it to fit.

No. The only time it's acceptable to share a staff is when its either 2 of the exact same instrument (with similar parts), or different instruments that will be played by the same musician.

*whisper* Get different score paper */whisper*

EDIT: DAMN YOU, QC *fist-shake*

So if I layed it out in such a way that I had one person playing piccolo and bass flute, would that be an acceptable use of sharing a staff?

I can't exactly resize it because i'm writing it by hand and the largest score paper I have right now is Carta No. 20.

Thanks alot.

One more thing, if I layed the oboes and english horn out this way, would I have to write the english horn's transposed key signature or should I simply write it's part in concert pitch?

If the score is in concert pitch, leave the English Horn part in concert pitch. If the score is transposed, you must put the correct key signature/etc. in the part where appropriate.

The player's part, however, must be transposed appropriately no matter what.

What if i'm writing it in transposed form then how should I go about it?

(I stealth-edited my post with your answer)

Thanks for all the help everyone.

In pre 20th century music is very common for horns to change transpositions during a piece (respectively switch between crooks), so that's probably the best thing to do with switches between Oboe and English Horn too. You can even define a staff style to change to a different transposition, so it plays back correctly.

One problem I can see with sharing a staff between two instruments played by one player is when those instruments normally wouldn't be located next to each other in the score. For example it is very common that the piccolo is played by the third (respectively second, if there are only two) flutist. The problem if this flutist changes between piccolo and flute is that the piccolo must be on the top staff, whereas the third flute is below the second. And putting the third flute (when it's playing flute) above the first would be quite confusing. So putting them on a single staff only works well when the first doubles on the piccolo. The same goes for Eb clarinets, which are often played by the third clarinetist.

The only time I would see it being pheasable for puting more than one instrument of different families, i.e. Flutes and Oboes, in the same staff is if you wrote a condensed score of which would be a non-transposing score. This would usually be a grand staff or two depending on the size of the ensemble.

To Gardener:

Horn players were changing crooks around the early 19th C. By the 20th C., horns had valves and could easily play chromatic passages, however, composers still wrote for horns in the old style, 1 and 3 were a similar range and 2 and 4 the same. Still in the non-transposed key of the piece. Therefore, hornists must transpose because the instrument was and still is in F.

I believe that's what he said...