Parts and page turns
Hey, just a heads-up: this was originally posted on my old website in June 2020. I’m moving all my old blog posts to this fancy new site!
Hello everyone. I've just posted a new typesetting video on YouTube, about some tricky page turns and their inventive solutions. You can watch it here, or read on below if you prefer images to be still and words to be written - I've transcribed the video and included the relevant screenshots.
If you’ve played in an orchestra before, at some point you’ve probably encountered at least one horrible page turn. Maybe you had to photocopy the next page and make a fold-out, or maybe you stopped playing for a couple bars so you could turn the page. You’ve also probably encountered hundreds of effortless page turns that you never had to think about. Page turns are a little like CGI in films; if they’re perfect, you don’t notice them.
Unfortunately, not all scores are friendly. Today we’re going to look at this Star Trek medley I arranged for a bit of fun, because there were a number of challenges in making the parts that required various solutions.
First let’s look at the oboe. This first page turn is ideal, there are two bars rest at the end of the page and almost another full bar rest overleaf. At this tempo that’s about four seconds, which should be fine for woodwinds.
A good page turn - 4 seconds rest, enough time for a woodwind player
This next page turn is a little tighter though, it’s only three seconds. That should still be possible for a woodwind player that’s close to the music stand, but in a situation like this I like to warn them.
A tight page turn that might not be obvious when sight-reading - it’s nice to give a little warning
You’ll often see “V.S.”, which indicates a quick page turn, and that’s fine, but personally I like to show exactly how long they have to turn. This is especially helpful here, as the penultimate line of this page ends with a bar rest. If I just write V.S. here, a player might assume the turn is quicker than it really is, and instead try turning in bar 98. By indicating there are two bars available on the next page, I’m reassuring the player that this really is the best opportunity for a page turn.
This isn’t just helpful for quick page turns though; sometimes it’s necessary for the opposite. These pages in the clarinet part are pretty full on, there aren’t a lot of rests and a player could reasonably get concerned there won’t be time to turn. What I don’t want is the last note to get cut short as they turn quick unnecessarily, so I put a little note at the bottom of the page to reassure them that there is plenty of time.
Looking at pages 2 and 3 you’d never guess there’d be four bars rest on page 4 - it’s helpful to give a little heads up
If there is a good 15 seconds of rests on the next page I might just write “Time”, but for four bars I like to be more specific.
Now let’s look at the bassoon. You’ll notice that the part starts on the left hand page, rather than the right.
Parts can start on the left if it makes page turns easier
A conductor’s score should typically always start on the right, and by default I try to make parts start there too, but sometimes page turns work better starting on page 2. As you can see, there aren’t really many good places to put a page turn in on this part, but starting with a double page spread allowed me to hit a page turn on the bar before rehearsal D, and if we look at the rest of the part it’s allowed us to get some nice page turns later on.
Now the flute is a much busier instrument in this arrangement, so nice page turns are rarer. The three bar rest starting at bar 67 was the best option for a page turn, so like the bassoon this part starts on page 2.
Add an intentionally blank page to hit better page turns later in the score
However, this made page turns further on much less friendly. I could see the best opportunity was just after rehearsal G, so I added a blank page in, rather than trying to stretch out one page of material over two. Of course, when doing something like this I’ll make a note on the previous page, so the player doesn’t get confused. It’s also very important to mark the blank page in some way, so it doesn’t look like just a printing error. Sometimes I’ll write out a quick message, if it’s between movements I’ll probably just put an asterisk in the middle of the page, some people put an arrow pointing up to the top of the next page, you can do whatever you think looks best. In any case, the blank page here puts this part on track to hit a bunch of friendly page turns later on.
Sadly, sometimes there are no friendly page turns. The strings in this arrangement play nearly constantly, so these parts were quite fiddly. For example, pages 2, 3 and 4 of this bass part have almost no rests, and finding a seamless page turn here is impossible.
Sometimes (particularly with strings) there aren’t any good places to turn
Turning while playing - not ideal, but in rare cases it’s the only option
However, the A in bars 157-158 is an open string, which doesn’t require the left hand. Though cumbersome, this is the best and indeed only place to put a page turn, so I made a note to turn during these two bars.
In an orchestral setting this is certainly less than ideal as bass players will sit further from the music stand, however this arrangement was written to be recorded remotely so I feel safe in assuming the player will be closer than usual. A page turn like this is to be avoided whenever possible, but sometimes there really is no escaping it.
Now let’s look at the last and trickiest part of today, the cello. The cello really doesn’t stop playing, so finding opportunities to put page turns was like a particularly challenging treasure hunt. However, as we just learned with the bass, knowing how the instrument works can help us.
If you have to turn while playing, make sure the note you turn on can be played with one hand. A cellist can temporarily take their hand of the fingerboard to turn while holding an open C if they really have to. Obviously this won’t work on violin or viola.
At rehearsal H we have a low C on an open string, which like before means the left hand is free. Starting the part on page 2 lets us hit this point as a page turn, and you’ll see at the bottom of page 3 I’ve given a fragment of what’s coming to prepare the player. This is really not something you should be doing on a regular basis, and is only a step up from having another player turn your part for you. However, here we use it not just once but twice; at rehearsal N we have more low Cs, and nowhere else to turn.
Notice how getting the best page turn takes precedence over even staff distribution or saving paper.
This one is combined with a blank page, and page 5 is only 2/3 full. While ideally a part will have evenly spaced systems and as few page turns as necessary, always remember that better page turns are more important than fewer page turns. This blank page means we can hit nine beats rest at the bottom of page 7, which is the last opportunity this part has for a page turn.
It’s just a whole load of notes from here, so buckle up.
That's all for this post. I hope you learned a little about page turns, and how to find them in busy scores. If there’s anything you’d like to explore in more detail, or if you have any other questions about typesetting you’d like answered, please leave a comment down below. Thanks for reading, and I look forward to seeing you next time.
